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Related Concept Videos

Chirality in Nature02:30

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...
Chirality02:25

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 at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur02:30

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...
Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers02:25

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...
Prochirality02:05

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...
Radical Halogenation: Stereochemistry01:33

Radical Halogenation: Stereochemistry

Stereochemistry is the study of the different spatial arrangements of atoms in a given molecule. The stereochemistry of radical halogenations can be understood from three different situations:
Halogenation to form a new chiral center:

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A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality
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Chiral nihility effects on energy flow in chiral materials.

Cheng-Wei Qiu1, Nawaz Burokur, Saïd Zouhd

  • 1Laboratoire de Génie Electrique de Paris, CNRS Ecole Supérieure D'Electricité, Plateau de Moulon 91192,Gif-Sur-Yvette, France.

Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, Image Science, and Vision
|December 25, 2007
PubMed
Summary

Electromagnetic waves in chiral nihility media exhibit unique properties, enabling impedance matching with free space for efficient energy transmission. This research explores chirality

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Area of Science:

  • Electromagnetism
  • Materials Science
  • Wave Propagation

Background:

  • Chiral materials exhibit unique electromagnetic properties due to their non-superimposable mirror-image structures.
  • Understanding wave propagation in such media is crucial for advanced optical and electromagnetic applications.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To characterize electromagnetic plane wave propagation in isotropic chiral media, focusing on chiral nihility.
  • To investigate the effects of chirality on energy transmission, impedance matching, and reflection.
  • To analyze electric field distributions and phenomena like transparency and power tunneling.

Main Methods:

  • Theoretical analysis of electromagnetic plane wave propagation in chiral media.
  • Exploration of "chiral nihility" where permittivity and permeability approach zero.
  • Numerical calculations to analyze E-field distributions and energy transmission characteristics.
  • Investigation of Brewster angles in chiral nihility scenarios.

Main Results:

  • Achieved impedance matching of chiral media to free space by selecting appropriate chirality values.
  • Demonstrated that chiral nihility media can exhibit a wide range of Brewster angles.
  • Numerical results show phenomena such as transparency and power tunneling, highlighting chirality's effect on energy transmission and reflection.

Conclusions:

  • Chiral nihility media offer novel ways to control electromagnetic wave propagation and energy transmission.
  • The ability to match wave impedance and refractive index to free space opens possibilities for novel device designs.
  • Chirality significantly influences energy transmission and reflection, leading to unique phenomena like transparency and power tunneling.