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Related Concept Videos

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 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...
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...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 5, 2026

Probing the Structure and Dynamics of Interfacial Water with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy
10:28

Probing the Structure and Dynamics of Interfacial Water with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy

Published on: May 27, 2018

Regular scanning tunneling microscope tips can be intrinsically chiral.

Heather L Tierney1, Colin J Murphy, E Charles H Sykes

  • 1Department of Chemistry, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155-5813, USA.

Physical Review Letters
|January 15, 2011
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Scanning tunneling microscope tips possess chirality, affecting electron tunneling and molecular rotation rates. This discovery impacts measurements of asymmetric surface phenomena across various scientific fields.

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A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality
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Probing the Structure and Dynamics of Interfacial Water with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy

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Visualizing Uniaxial-strain Manipulation of Antiferromagnetic Domains in Fe1+YTe Using a Spin-polarized Scanning Tunneling Microscope
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Visualizing Uniaxial-strain Manipulation of Antiferromagnetic Domains in Fe1+YTe Using a Spin-polarized Scanning Tunneling Microscope

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A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality
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A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality

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Area of Science:

  • Surface science
  • Nanotechnology
  • Physical chemistry

Background:

  • Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) is a key technique for atomic-scale surface analysis.
  • Molecular chirality is crucial in fields like pharmaceuticals and materials science.
  • The intrinsic properties of STM tips have not been fully explored for chiral interactions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the chirality of standard scanning tunneling microscope tips.
  • To determine the effect of tip chirality on electron tunneling through chiral molecules.
  • To analyze the influence of tip chirality on electrically excited molecular rotation.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized standard scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) techniques.
  • Employed chiral molecules with distinct left- and right-handed structures.
  • Measured electron tunneling efficiencies and molecular rotation rates using STM tips.

Main Results:

  • Demonstrated that conventional STM tips exhibit inherent chirality.
  • Observed significant differences in electron tunneling efficiencies based on molecular handedness and tip chirality.
  • Recorded substantial variations in molecular rotation rates, correlating with molecular chirality when excited by the chiral tip.

Conclusions:

  • The chirality of STM tips can influence measurements of chiral molecules.
  • This finding has potential implications for interpreting surface asymmetry in various scientific disciplines.
  • Re-evaluation of STM data involving chiral surfaces may be necessary.