The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry hosts guest speaker Prof. Patrick H. Vaccaro, Irénée du Pont Professor of Chemistry at Yale University. His topic will be "Chirality and Optical Activity: New Twists on Old Topics."

The seminar will be preceded by a light reception at 4:30pm in the Anderson Lounge. 

Sponsored by the Luke E. Steiner Lecture Fund.

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Abstract

Among the many physical processes that distinguish chiral molecules, perhaps none has had as profound an impact on chemistry as their enantiospecific interactions with polarized light. Efforts to probe the dispersive components of such optical activity in isolated species (as made possible by advancements in ultrasensitive cavity-based polarimetry) will be presented, with the marked impact of vibrational/conformational dynamics and environmental perturbations (e.g., solvation) on intrinsic chiroptical response being highlighted. The structural and electronic provenance of isolated-molecule behavior observed in rarefied vapor phases will be elaborated through detailed quantum-chemical analyses, and the seemingly counterintuitive effects of extrinsic solute-solvent coupling will be discussed.