Assignment of the relative and absolute configurations of acyclic secondary 1,2-diols

The NMR profiles (13C-δ, 1H-δ, 1H(OH)-δ, and 3JH,H) of syn- and anti-diols— in achiral solvents were found to be very similar to each other. Contrarily, their Δδ (Δδ=δ(R,R)-2−δ(S,S)-2) behaviors in chiral bidentate NMR solvent (R,R)- and (S,S)-BMBA-p-Me () were found to be significantly different. On the basis of this NMR characteristic, a method has been developed to predict both the relative and absolute configurations of acyclic secondary 1,2-diols.