The use of exchangeable nuclei to observe enantiomers through deuterium NMR in chiral liquid crystalline solvents.

It is demonstrated that (2)H NMR in chiral liquid crystalline solvents can be used to measure enantiomeric excesses using exchangeable deuterons in alcohols. This is performed in a trivial way at low temperature (260-270 K) where a slow exchange regime was reached. Among the various alcohols used to explore the possibilities of this technique, an unusually large isotopic effect on molecular orientation between two isotopomers has been observed.