Patent Document ID: 20090302207
Application ID: 11664079
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. A method for determining an unknown enantiomeric composition of a chiral compound in an unknown sample, comprising: preparing a series of known samples, each of the known samples comprising a chiral compound having a known enantiomeric composition, wherein, in each of the known samples, the enantiomeric composition of the chiral compound is varied; collecting pseudo-absorption spectral data of the known samples by passing light of various wavelengths through a first polarizer, the known sample, and a second polarizer oriented at a 45 degree angle with respect to the first polarizer, and recording the resultant light intensity with a spectrometer; performing a principal component analysis to select a spectral range of wavelengths in which the spectral differences arising in each of the known samples due to an influence of the enantiomeric composition is most appreciable to give the selected range of wavelengths; performing a partial-least-squares regression of the spectral data over the selected range of wavelengths for each of the series of the known samples to determine a series of regression coefficients and a regression constant; entering the series of regression coefficients for the selected range of wavelengths into a regression vector; collecting “pseudo-absorption” spectral data of an unknown sample by passing light of various wavelengths through a first polarizer, the unknown sample, and a second polarizer oriented at a 45 degree angle with respect to the first polarizer, and recording the resultant light intensity with a spectrometer to give unknown spectral data, wherein the unknown sample comprises the chiral compound of the known samples having an unknown enantiomeric composition; and inserting the unknown spectral data into the regression vector to allow calculation of the unknown enantiomeric composition of the chiral compound in the unknown sample.