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Master Internship
Conformer-selective Photoelectron circular dichroism
by - 4 October 2023
Chirality is an important characteristic of life. Chiral drugs for instance often have enantioselective therapeutic activity. Moreover, their conformation must be flexible enough to optimize the interaction with the target. Developing methods able to address both molecular chirality and flexibility is therefore of prime importance.
This is the aim of the new Photoelectron Circular Dichroism (PECD) scheme that we have recently developed. PECD is observed as a forward / backward asymmetry in the angular distribution of the electron resulting from photoionization of a chiral species with circularly polarized light (CPL). It is several orders of magnitude more intense than all other chiroptical methods, reaching up to 40 % and is very sensitive to conformation.(1) This project aims to obtain conformer-selective PECD via resonance-enhanced two-photon ionization (RE2PI), using supersonic expansion and narrow-band ns lasers.
The experimental set-up is operational and has recently produced its first results. It will be applied to flexible biomolecules such as amino acids and questions such as induced chirality.(2)
Contact: Anne Zehnacker or Valéria Lepère anne.zehnacker-rentien@universite-paris-saclay.fr
1. J. Dupont, V. Lepere, A. Zehnacker, S. Hartweg, G. A. Garcia and L. Nahon, The Journal of Physical Chemistry letters, 2022, 13, 2313-2320.
2. E. Rouquet, M. Roy Chowdhury, G. A. Garcia, L. Nahon, J. Dupont, V. Lepère, K. Le Barbu-Debus and A. Zehnacker, Nature Communications, 2023, Accepted.
View online : CHIralité et spectroscoPIE (CHIPIE)