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Related Concept Videos

Properties of Enantiomers and Optical Activity02:24

Properties of Enantiomers and Optical Activity

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,...
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...
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...
Stereoisomerism02:52

Stereoisomerism

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...
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...

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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

Optical chirality and its interaction with matter.

Yiqiao Tang1, Adam E Cohen

  • 1Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, 12 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.

Physical Review Letters
|May 21, 2010
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

We developed a new measure for optical chirality, quantifying its local density in electromagnetic fields. This allows for predicting molecular excitation asymmetry and reveals "superchiral" fields with enhanced chiral properties.

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Last Updated: Jun 12, 2026

Coulomb Explosion Imaging as a Tool to Distinguish Between Stereoisomers
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Area of Science:

  • Optics and Photonics
  • Physical Chemistry
  • Electromagnetism

Background:

  • Chirality is crucial in molecular recognition and biological processes.
  • Existing measures of chirality often assume simple electromagnetic fields.
  • Understanding chiral interactions with complex fields is essential.

Purpose of the Study:

  • Introduce a novel measure for the local density of optical chirality.
  • Quantify the asymmetry in molecular excitation rates due to electromagnetic fields.
  • Explore the flow of optical chirality and identify regions of enhanced chiral effects.

Main Methods:

  • Developed a mathematical framework for local optical chirality density.
  • Formulated a continuity equation for optical chirality flow.
  • Analyzed solutions to Maxwell's equations, including "superchiral" fields.

Main Results:

  • The proposed measure accurately quantifies optical chirality for arbitrary field spatial dependence.
  • A continuity equation analogous to the Poynting theorem was established for chirality.
  • "Superchiral" field solutions demonstrate significantly larger chiral asymmetry than plane waves.

Conclusions:

  • The local density of optical chirality is a fundamental property of electromagnetic fields.
  • This measure provides new insights into chiral light-matter interactions.
  • The discovery of "superchiral" fields opens avenues for enhanced enantioselective processes.