Material Detail

This is an automated demonstration enabling the user to measure the optical rotatory dispersion of a mixture of optical isomers

Optical activity of compounds in solution can be measured with a polarimeter, shown schematically in the upper part of the graphic. The angle of rotation of plane polarized light, conventionally the sodium D-line at 589 nm, is determined using two polarizers. (In the graphic, an idealized incident polarizer is reduced to a vertical slit coincident with the plane of polarization.) The angle of polarization of the emerging light is given by , where is the specific rotation, referred to the sodium D-line and a temperature of 20 ºC, is the path length in decimeters (set equal to 10), and is the concentration in g/ml.

This will delete the comment from the database. This operation is not reversible. Are you sure you want to do it?

Thank you for reporting a broken "Go to Material" link in MERLOT to help us maintain a collection of valuable learning materials.

If you feel this material is inappropriate for the MERLOT Collection, please click SEND REPORT, and the MERLOT Team will investigate. Thank you!

You are being taken to the material on another site. This will open a new window.

Do not show me this again