L-valine is examined as a derivatizing agent for the stereochemical analysis of 2-methyl-1-butanol and 2-methyl-1-pentanol, by ¹H-NMR spectrometry. Racemization does not occur during derivatization. It is shown that the chemical shift differences of these epimeric esters are useful for the assignment of the configuration and for the determination of the enantiomeric composition of the primary chiral alcohols from which they were prepared.
absolute configuration; optical purity; chiral primary alcohol; NMR
