POLARIMETRY

POLARIMETRY
Presented By -
Mr. Shaise Jacob
Faculty
Nirmala College of Pharmacy
Muvattupuzha, Kerala
India
Email – jacobshaise@gmail.com
• The term Polarimetry may be defined as
the study of the rotation of polarised
light by transparent substance.
• Optical rotatory power is useful for »
• Qualitative analysis
• Quantitative analysis
• Elucidation of chemical structures
• An ordinary light usually vibrates in all
the planes → UNPOLARISED LIGHT
• The vibrations may all be restricted to one
direction only, in the perpendicular plane →
PLANE POLARIZED LIGHT
• Unpolarised light gets converted into a plane-
polarized light by simply passing it through a
lens called a NICOL Prism. (after William
Nicol – the inventor)

• NICOL Prism – Iceland Spar

Calcite ( CaCO3 form )
(or) Polaroid
• A plane polarized light which consists of two
components of fixed magnitude rotating in
opposite directions to one another;
• The right circulatory polarized light
• The left circulatory polarized light
• Plane polarized light is the vector sum of
these two components
 THEORY
• An optically active substance is one that
rotates the plane of polarized light
• (1) Lactic acid
• Latin : Dexter = right
designated by ‘d’
• Latin : Laevus = left
designated by ‘l’
OPTICAL ACTIVITY
When a certain organic liquids, solutions
(sugar) or quartz crystals are placed in the
path of plane polarized light, the plane of
polarization is rotated
 Magnitude of rotation depend upon
 Nature of the substance
 Length of liquid column
 Conc. Of the solution
 Nature of the solvent
 Temperature of the solution
 WL of the light used
The rotatory power of a given solution is
generally expressed as Specific rotation
a – observed angle of rotation
L – length in decimeters
C - grams of substance in 100ml of solution
INSTRUMENTATION
Optical activity may be detected & measured
by an instrument → Polarimeter
• Light source – Sodium vapor lamp
• Analyzer – another Nicol prism aligned to
intercept the linearly polarized ray as it
emerges from the sample solution
 Determination of optical activity of
Pharmaceutical substances
 Optical rotation
 Specific optical rotation
noting the angle through which the plane of
polarization is rotated.
 Applications
 Identification
 Determination of O.A compounds
 Quantitative – sugar industry (sucrose)
 O.A is the only one parameter, for
distinguishing b/w D & L isomeric forms
SACCHARIMETRY
» important practical application of polarimetry
» determination of high conc. of sugars
» visual saccharimeters called
POLAROSCOPES