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Chirality in Nature

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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...

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An applied magnetic field causes loosely bound π-electrons in organic molecules to circulate, producing a local or induced diamagnetic field over a large spatial volume. As the molecules tumble in solution, the field generated by π-electrons in spherical substituents results in a zero net field. However, the net field generated by π-electrons in non-spherical substituents is not zero. The effect of this induced field depends on the orientation of the molecule with respect to B0, resulting in...

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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.
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Chirality

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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

Chiral electron transport: scattering through helical potentials.

Sina Yeganeh¹, Mark A Ratner, Ernesto Medina

¹Department of Chemistry and Center for Nanofabrication and Molecular Self-Assembly, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3113, USA.

The Journal of Chemical Physics

|July 10, 2009

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

We developed a model for electron transmission through chiral molecules, explaining spin-selective scattering. This model predicts preferential transmission based on electron spin and helix orientation, impacting molecular interfaces and junctions.

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Area of Science:

Condensed Matter Physics
Surface Science
Molecular Physics

Background:

Chiral molecules exhibit unique interactions with polarized electrons.
Spin-orbit interactions play a crucial role in electron scattering.
Molecular interfaces show significant spin-selective scattering and magnetic properties.

Purpose of the Study:

To model the transmission of spin-polarized electrons through chiral molecules.
To explain chiral effects in photoemitted polarized electrons through organic layers.
To extend the model to analyze conductance in chiral molecular junctions.

Main Methods:

Developed a scattering model incorporating confining and spin-orbit potentials.
Calculated differential scattering cross sections for helical structures.
Applied the model to analyze experimental observations of electron transmission through thin organic layers.

Main Results:

The model explains intensity differences in transmitted electrons based on spin polarization and helix orientation.
Demonstrated preferential transmission of electrons with polarization aligned to the helix.
Identified large asymmetry factors in spin-selective scattering at molecular interfaces.

Conclusions:

The helical model accurately describes spin-polarized electron transmission through chiral molecules.
The findings provide insights into spin-selective scattering mechanisms at molecular interfaces.
The model's extension to conductance opens avenues for studying chiral molecular junctions.