Amphetamine, a schedule II controlled stimulant, has one chiral center and, as such, two enantiomeric forms. Vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectroscopy has been used to assign the absolute configuration of each enantiomer of the compound. Further, a procedure has been designed to determine the enantiomeric excess of samples of amphetamine based on their VCD spectra. When synthesized illicitly, neither a racemic mixture nor a pure sample of one of the enantiomers of amphetamine is created. Rather, samples are found to have an excess of one enantiomer over the other. VCD analysis of such mixtures shows that the overlap of signals from each enantiomer will cause a change in the peak intensities in the spectrum obtained. The intensity of peaks in the spectrum is proportional to the ratio of the enantiomers present, and thus the enantomeric excess.

VCD analysis of amphetamine

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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