Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

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...
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...
¹H NMR Chemical Shift Equivalence: Enantiotopic and Diastereotopic Protons00:58

¹H NMR Chemical Shift Equivalence: Enantiotopic and Diastereotopic Protons

Replacing each alpha-hydrogen in chloroethane by bromine (or a different functional group) yields a pair of enantiomers. Such protons are called prochiral or enantiotopic and are related by a mirror plane. Enantiotopic protons are chemically equivalent in an achiral environment. Because most proton NMR spectra are recorded using achiral solvents, enantiotopic hydrogens yield a single signal.
In chiral compounds such as 2-butanol, replacing the methylene hydrogens at C3 produces a pair of...
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...
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...

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by
Same author

HyDRA-II: spectroscopic results and BEsT guesses for the mono- and dihydrate blind challenge.

Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP·2026
Same author

Spectroscopy and Conformer-Selective Photoelectron Circular Dichroism of Chiral Molecules.

Chemistry, an Asian journal·2026
Same author

Isocyanides Versus Nitriles: Divergent Hydrogen Bonding Behavior Driven by the Balance Between Dispersive and Electrostatic Forces.

Chemphyschem : a European journal of chemical physics and physical chemistry·2026
Same author

Induced Photoelectron Circular Dichroism as a Probe for Distinguishing Diastereotopic Lone Electron Pairs.

Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English)·2026
Same author

Modeling the Vibrational Circular Dichroism Spectroscopy of Phenylcyclohexanediol Solvated in Dimethyl Sulfoxide Using Polarizable Molecular Dynamics.

The journal of physical chemistry. B·2026
Same author

Conformer-selective photoelectron circular dichroism: Experimental development and application to nitrogen chirality.

Structural dynamics (Melville, N.Y.)·2025

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 2, 2026

Coulomb Explosion Imaging as a Tool to Distinguish Between Stereoisomers
08:51

Coulomb Explosion Imaging as a Tool to Distinguish Between Stereoisomers

Published on: August 18, 2017

Chirality recognition between neutral molecules in the gas phase.

Anne Zehnacker1, Martin A Suhm

  • 1CNRS, Laboratoire de Photophysique Moléculaire, UPR3361, Univ. Paris-Sud, 91405 Orsay, France. anne.zehnacker-rentien@u-psud.fr

Angewandte Chemie (International Ed. in English)
|August 13, 2008
PubMed
Summary

Chiral molecule interactions are key in biology and synthesis. Studying these noncovalent interactions using spectroscopy reveals insights into chirality recognition and induction processes.

More Related Videos

Line Shape Analysis of Dynamic NMR Spectra for Characterizing Coordination Sphere Rearrangements at a Chiral Rhenium Polyhydride Complex
10:52

Line Shape Analysis of Dynamic NMR Spectra for Characterizing Coordination Sphere Rearrangements at a Chiral Rhenium Polyhydride Complex

Published on: July 27, 2022

Preparation of Contiguous Bisaziridines for Regioselective Ring-Opening Reactions
04:38

Preparation of Contiguous Bisaziridines for Regioselective Ring-Opening Reactions

Published on: July 28, 2022

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jul 2, 2026

Coulomb Explosion Imaging as a Tool to Distinguish Between Stereoisomers
08:51

Coulomb Explosion Imaging as a Tool to Distinguish Between Stereoisomers

Published on: August 18, 2017

Line Shape Analysis of Dynamic NMR Spectra for Characterizing Coordination Sphere Rearrangements at a Chiral Rhenium Polyhydride Complex
10:52

Line Shape Analysis of Dynamic NMR Spectra for Characterizing Coordination Sphere Rearrangements at a Chiral Rhenium Polyhydride Complex

Published on: July 27, 2022

Preparation of Contiguous Bisaziridines for Regioselective Ring-Opening Reactions
04:38

Preparation of Contiguous Bisaziridines for Regioselective Ring-Opening Reactions

Published on: July 28, 2022

Area of Science:

  • Physical Chemistry
  • Supramolecular Chemistry
  • Spectroscopy

Background:

  • Noncovalent interactions involving chiral molecules exhibit unique behaviors due to mirror image symmetry.
  • Chirality recognition phenomena are crucial in biological systems, organic synthesis, and polymer design.
  • These interactions can be classified based on the chirality of the interacting partners (permanent or transient).

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review spectroscopic techniques for studying noncovalent interactions of chiral molecules in isolation.
  • To highlight recent findings on chirality discrimination, induction, and synchronization.
  • To explore the influence of conformational flexibility on these interactions.

Main Methods:

  • High-level quantum chemical calculations for small molecules.
  • Spectroscopic techniques including rotational, vibrational, electronic, and photoionization spectroscopy.
  • Studying phenomena in vacuum isolation at low temperatures for reliable theory-experiment connections.

Main Results:

  • Detailed analysis of dimers of permanently chiral molecules.
  • Investigation of chirality recognition, discrimination, induction, and synchronization processes.
  • Understanding the impact of conformational flexibility on intermolecular interactions.

Conclusions:

  • Spectroscopic methods in isolation provide crucial data for understanding chiral noncovalent interactions.
  • Conformational flexibility significantly influences the observed phenomena.
  • Analogies can be drawn between microscopic mechanisms and macroscopic phenomena, as well as intra- and intermolecular cases.