Confirmation by IR of the preferred conformations of CFTA esters in solution: a highly reliable criterion for the stereochemistry assignment of chiral alcohols.

Direct confirmation of the preferred conformation of diastereomeric esters derived from a chiral secondary alcohol and a chiral derivatizing agent in solution, which is crucial for reliable NMR-based assignment of absolute stereochemistry of the alcohol, has been attained for the first time by examination of IR spectra of the CFTA esters.