Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

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...

Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur

Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur

Chirality is most prevalent in carbon-based tetrahedral compounds, but this important facet of molecular symmetry extends to sp3-hybridized nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur centers, including trivalent molecules with lone pairs. Here, the lone pair behaves as a functional group in addition to the other three substituents to form an analogous tetrahedral center that can be chiral.
A consequence of chirality is the need for enantiomeric resolution. While this is theoretically possible for all...

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...

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...

Induced Electric Dipoles

Induced Electric Dipoles

A permanent electric dipole orients itself along an external electric field. This rotation can be quantified by defining the potential energy because the external torque does work in rotating it. Then, the potential energy is minimum at the parallel configuration and maximum at the antiparallel configuration. While the former is a stable equilibrium, the latter is an unstable equilibrium.
Since the absolute value of potential energy holds no physical meaning, its zero value can be chosen as per...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Engineering the Self-Assembly of Bacterial Microcompartment Shell Proteins via Charged Mutations.

ACS nano·2026

Same author

Solvent-Dependent Mechanical Response of De Novo Helix Repeat Proteins.

The journal of physical chemistry. B·2026

Same author

Mechanophore cross-linking enhances ballistic energy dissipation of polymers.

Nature·2026

Same author

Role of Polymer-Protein Interactions in the Dynamics of Polymer-Integrated Protein Crystals.

Journal of the American Chemical Society·2026

Same author

Electrostatically driven pattern formation in mixed charged-neutral multicomponent elastic membranes.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026

Same author

Rheological Isotope Effects for Molecular Insight in Covalent Adaptable Networks.

Macromolecules·2026

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 13, 2026

Coulomb Explosion Imaging as a Tool to Distinguish Between Stereoisomers

Coulomb Explosion Imaging as a Tool to Distinguish Between Stereoisomers

Published on: August 18, 2017

Spontaneous chirality via long-range electrostatic forces.

Kevin L Kohlstedt¹, Francisco J Solis, Graziano Vernizzi

¹Department of Materials Science, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA.

Physical Review Letters

|August 7, 2007

Summary

This study models charge patterns on cylinders, revealing distinct ring and helical phases based on radius. Increased salt concentration leads to macroscopic phase separation, impacting pattern formation.

More Related Videos

A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality

A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality

Published on: March 11, 2022

Probing the Structure and Dynamics of Interfacial Water with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy

Probing the Structure and Dynamics of Interfacial Water with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy

Published on: May 27, 2018

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jul 13, 2026

Coulomb Explosion Imaging as a Tool to Distinguish Between Stereoisomers

Coulomb Explosion Imaging as a Tool to Distinguish Between Stereoisomers

Published on: August 18, 2017

A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality

A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality

Published on: March 11, 2022

Probing the Structure and Dynamics of Interfacial Water with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy

Probing the Structure and Dynamics of Interfacial Water with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy

Published on: May 27, 2018

Area of Science:

Condensed matter physics
Physical chemistry
Materials science

Background:

Periodic charge patterns on curved surfaces are crucial in various physical and chemical systems.
Understanding these patterns requires models that account for electrostatic interactions and geometric constraints.
Electroneutrality and salt concentration significantly influence self-assembly and phase behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop and analyze a model for periodic charge patterns (helices, rings, lamellae) on a cylindrical surface.
To investigate how cylinder radius and salt concentration affect pattern size and pitch angle.
To construct a phase diagram illustrating the different observed charge configurations.

Main Methods:

Development of a theoretical model for charge patterns under global electroneutrality.
Application of numerical and analytical techniques to study pattern formation.
Analysis of the dependence of pattern characteristics on cylinder radius and salt concentration.

Main Results:

A phase diagram reveals distinct ring phases at small radii and chiral helical phases at large radii for pure Coulomb interactions.
A critical salt concentration was identified where domain size diverges, leading to achiral macroscopic phase segregation.
The model successfully predicts the transition between different ordered charge structures.

Conclusions:

The interplay between cylinder geometry and salt concentration dictates the emergent charge ordering.
The findings provide insights into self-assembly mechanisms on curved surfaces.
The model offers a framework for exploring related phenomena and potential applications.