EU-funded scientists developed a new class of stable chiral macromolecules – alleno-acetylenic oligomers – in their quest to investigate what causes high optical activity. These materials are of interest to chemistry as much for their outstanding chiro-optical properties as for a number of other applications.
Optical activity describes the phenomenon by which chiral molecules are observed to rotate polarised light in either a clockwise or counterclockwise direction. As chiral molecules, alleno-acetylenes are enantiopure and very optically active.
Further details: New insight into the chiral world