Solid-State VCD of Inorganic Intercalation Compounds

This chapter is concerned with solid-state VCD (SD-VCD). The method is developed to analyze inorganic intercalation compounds. An example consists of a montmorillonite clay mineral as a host and a cationic chiral metal complex as a guest. The metal complex interacts stereoselectively with its neighbors in a narrow interlayer space. Notably the intensity of VCD peak is dependent on the ∆Λ chirality relation between the adsorbed molecules. The effect is denoted as “stereoselective VCD enhancement”, leading to the elucidation of the two-dimensional organization of intercalated metal complexes. SD-VCD is further extended to other host materials with low-dimensional nanosheets.