Optical activity in the biaryl series

The relationship between the CD spectra of the chiral biaryls and their stereochemical configuration, as a function of the dihedral angle between the molecular planes of the aromatic moieties, has been investigated for biphenyl, 1,1′-binaphthyl, 1,1′-bianthryl and 9,9′-bianthryl in the exciton approximation and, for the 1,1′-binaphthyls, in the π-SCF approximation. Both methods provide unambiguous assignments of absolute configuration except for biaryls with a critical dihedral angle of π/2 in those with effective D_data2 chromophoric symmetry, or 100–110° in the case of the 1,1′-binaphthyls.