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Properties of Enantiomers and Optical Activity

Properties of Enantiomers and Optical Activity

It is essential to understand the difference between chiral and achiral interactions and the implications thereof in optical activity and their applications. Just as our feet, which are chiral, interact uniquely with chiral objects, such as a pair of shoes, but identically with achiral socks, enantiomers of a molecule exhibit different properties only when they interact with other chiral media. An example of a significant implication from this facet is the phenomenon known as optical activity,...

Chirality

Chirality

Chirality is a term that describes the lack of mirror symmetry in an object. In other words, chiral objects cannot be superposed on their mirror images. For example, our feet are chiral, as the mirror image of the left foot, the right foot, cannot be superposed on the left foot.
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...

Chirality in Nature

Chirality in Nature

Chirality is the most intriguing yet essential facet of nature, governing life’s biochemical processes and precision. It can be observed from a snail shell pattern in a macroscopic world to an amino acid, the minutest building block of life. Most of the snails around the world have right-coiled shells because of the intrinsic chirality in their genes. All the amino acids present in the human body exist in an enantiomerically pure state, except for glycine - the sole achiral amino acid. The...

Prochirality

Prochirality

The concept of prochirality leads to the nomenclature of the individual faces of a molecule and plays a crucial role in the enantioselective reaction. It is a concept where two or more achiral molecules react to produce chiral products. A typical process is the reaction of an achiral ketone to generate a chiral alcohol. Here, the achiral reactant reacts with an achiral reducing agent, sodium borohydride, to generate an equimolar mixture of the chiral enantiomers of the product. For example, an...

Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers

Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers

Molecules that possess multiple chiral centers can afford a large number of stereoisomers. For instance, while some molecules like 2-butanol have one chiral center, defined as a tetrahedral carbon atom with four different substituents attached, several molecules like butane-2,3-diol have multiple chiral centers. A simple formula to predict the number of stereoisomers possible for a molecule with n chiral centers is 2n. However, there can be a lower number where some of the stereoisomers are...

Stereoisomerism

Stereoisomerism

Isomerism in Complexes
Isomers are different chemical species that have the same chemical formula.
Transition metal complexes often exist as geometric isomers, in which the same atoms are connected through the same types of bonds but with differences in their orientation in space. Coordination complexes with two different ligands in the cis and trans positions from a ligand of interest form isomers. For example, the octahedral [Co(NH3)4Cl2]+ ion has two isomers (Figure 1) In the cis...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 16, 2026

An Electrochemical Cholesteric Liquid Crystalline Device for Quick and Low-Voltage Color Modulation

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Published on: February 27, 2019

Optical activity produced by layer chirality in bent-core liquid crystals.

Loren E Hough¹, Chenhui Zhu, Michi Nakata

¹LCMRC, Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA.

Physical Review Letters

|March 16, 2007

Summary

Chiral smectic liquid crystals formed from achiral molecules exhibit large optical activity. This study directly demonstrates that layer chirality, not helical structures, causes this optical activity in specific liquid crystal phases.

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Area of Science:

Materials Science
Condensed Matter Physics
Crystallography

Background:

Chiral smectic liquid crystalline phases formed from achiral bent-core molecules exhibit significant optical activity.
The origin of this optical activity is debated, with proposed causes including helical superstructures and layer chirality.

Purpose of the Study:

To directly demonstrate the origin of optical activity in chiral smectic liquid crystalline phases formed from achiral bent-core molecules.
To elucidate the role of layer chirality versus helical superstructure in observed optical activity.

Main Methods:

Investigated the SmC(A)P(A) subphase of achiral bent-core liquid crystals.
Utilized techniques to directly observe and confirm the presence of layer chirality.

Main Results:

Directly demonstrated that layer chirality is the source of optical activity.
Confirmed that simultaneous tilt and polar ordering of bent-core mesogens induces layer chirality.
Ruled out helical superstructure as the primary cause of optical activity in this specific phase.

Conclusions:

Layer chirality, arising from the ordering of achiral bent-core mesogens, is the direct cause of large optical activity in the SmC(A)P(A) subphase.
This finding clarifies a long-standing question regarding the origin of optical activity in these unique liquid crystal phases.