Chiral recognition between lactic acid derivatives and an aromatic alcohol in a supersonic expansion: electronic and vibrational spectroscopy.

Jet-cooled diastereoisomeric complexes formed between a chiral probe, (+/-)-2-naphthyl-1-ethanol, and chiral lactic acid derivatives have been characterised by laser-induced fluorescence and IR fluorescence-dip spectroscopy. Complexes with non chiral alpha-hydroxyesters and chiral beta-hydroxyesters have also been studied for the sake of comparison. DFT calculations have been performed to assist in the analysis of the vibrational spectra and the determination of the structures.