Application of chiroptical techniques for exploration of inhomogeneous systems

Master's Thesis Abstract Jakub Jungwirth Understanding molecular structure of biochemically relevant molecules is of funda- mental interest for these molecules ultimately determine all functions of living organisms. Raman optical activity (ROA) is a chiroptical spectroscopic technique highly sensitive to molecular structure. This thesis presents an introduction to important concepts of ROA and two independent projects aiming to extend the possibilities of ROA, both from the- oretical and experimental points of view. The first project is a conformational analysis of dialanine, an important model peptide. A combined quantum mechanics / molecu- lar dynamics approach was used in spectral simulations and resulted in spectra with an unprecedented agreement with experiment. To obtain information about conformer equi- libria, a decomposition procedure of an experimental spectrum into calculated individual conformer spectra was coded and tested, and proved to be a viable approach. The sec- ond project was an attempt to carry out pioneering ROA measurements of amyloid fibrils, which are difficult to measure due to their inhomogeneous nature (insolubility, birefrin- gence). Within this project, the preparation protocol for such samples was improved. The performance of an all new rotational cuvette was examined and found..