Identification of conformer defects associated with tacticity in polymers using Terahertz spectroscopy

Control of tacticity (stereochemistry) is important for controlling polymer properties. Numerous synthetic protocols are used to manipulate polymer stereoregularity. However, still these conformer defects cannot be completely controlled and expensive NMR methods are used to determine the molecular structure of the resultant material. Terahertz spectroscopy (probing the range of 0-400 cm^-1 wavenumbers) can be used to identify these defects. A DFT simulation has been done to demonstrate the changes in spectra with presence of racemo and meso dyads in polypropylene molecule.