Use of induced circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) from racemic D(3) lanthanide complexes to determine the absolute configuration of amino acids.

The perturbation of the racemic equilibrium of luminescent D(3) lanthanide(III) complexes by added chiral agents, such as amino acids, may be a useful technique for determining the absolute configuration of the added species. It is shown in this work, however, that simple interpretation of the equilibrium shift of racemic tris-terdentate complexes of Tb(III) with 2,6-pyridine-dicarboxylate by amino acids, as measured by the sign of the resultant circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) in terms of specific structural characteristics is not possible. CPL results for a number of derivatized amino acids are also presented, and some insights into the nature of the chiral discriminatory forces that might be exploited in this kind of study are discussed.