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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...
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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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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,...
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Polymerization generates chiral centers along the entire backbone of a polymer chain. Accordingly, the stereochemistry of the substituent group has a significant effect on polymer properties. Polymers formed from monosubstituted alkene monomers feature chiral carbons at every alternate position in the polymer backbone. Relative to the predominant orientation of substituents at the adjacent chiral carbons, the polymer can exist in three different configurations: isotactic, syndiotactic, and...
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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...
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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...

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DNA-based polymers as chiral templates for second-order nonlinear optical materials.

Duangporn Wanapun1, Victoria J Hall, Nathan J Begue

  • 1Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette IN 47907, USA.

Chemphyschem : a European Journal of Chemical Physics and Physical Chemistry
|October 1, 2009
PubMed
Summary

Chiral deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) films spontaneously form and exhibit coherent second harmonic generation (SHG). Doping enhances SHG efficiency, suggesting new designs for organic nonlinear optical materials.

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Area of Science:

  • Materials Science
  • Optics
  • Polymer Chemistry

Background:

  • Chiral systems possess unique symmetry properties enabling coherent second harmonic generation (SHG) in materials without polar order.
  • Organic nonlinear optical materials are crucial for photonics and optoelectronics.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the potential of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and its derivatives as active materials for coherent second harmonic generation (SHG).
  • To explore new design strategies for organic nonlinear optical materials utilizing soft chiral polymers.

Main Methods:

  • Drop-casting of cetyltrimethylammonium (CTMA)-treated DNA to form spontaneous films.
  • Acquisition of SHG images as a function of incident and exitant polarization.
  • Doping DNA films with crystal violet to assess efficiency changes.

Main Results:

  • Spontaneously formed DNA-CTMA films exhibit activity for coherent second harmonic generation (SHG).
  • Experimental SHG polarization dependence aligns with theoretical predictions for nonpolar D(infinity) symmetry of DNA chains.
  • Doping with crystal violet significantly boosts SHG efficiency without altering polarization dependence, indicating a shared chiral origin.

Conclusions:

  • Chiral DNA-CTMA films are effective for coherent second harmonic generation (SHG) without requiring polar order.
  • The findings support the use of soft chiral polymers as a basis for novel organic nonlinear optical materials.
  • This research opens avenues for designing advanced optical materials through templating chiral polymer structures.