Optical Rotatory Dispersion (ORD) provides information on chiral molecules even without chromophores, such as saccharides. It can be used to measure the chirality of non-absorbing samples and the determination of absolute configuration.
JASCO offers two methods of ORD detection: optical null and intensity measurement systems. The intensity measurement method, using a fixed analyzer, is simpler and more economical, while the optical-null approach, with its rotating analyzer, is intrinsically more accurate because the measurement is absolute. Since ORD is very sensitive to strain in the sample cell window, cylindrical cells are strongly recommended for use ORD measurement.