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Related Concept Videos

Chirality in Nature02:30

Chirality in Nature

16.2K
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.
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Chirality02:25

Chirality

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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...
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Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur02:30

Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur

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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.
A consequence of chirality is the need for enantiomeric resolution. While this is theoretically possible for all...
6.7K
Prochirality02:05

Prochirality

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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...
4.7K
Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers02:25

Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers

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

¹H NMR Chemical Shift Equivalence: Enantiotopic and Diastereotopic Protons

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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...
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 16, 2025

A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality
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Emerging chirality in nanoscience.

Yong Wang1, Jun Xu, Yawen Wang

  • 1Division of Chemistry and Biological Chemistry, Nanyang Technological University, 21 Nanyang Link, 637371, Singapore.

Chemical Society Reviews
|December 5, 2012
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Chiral nanostructures offer novel applications by exploring diverse mechanisms and material compositions. This review categorizes these systems, highlighting unique structures and discoveries in nanoscience.

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Area of Science:

  • Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
  • Materials Science
  • Organic Chemistry

Background:

  • Chirality is fundamental in molecular and macroscopic systems.
  • Recent advances have led to the development of numerous chiral nanostructures.
  • Understanding the mechanisms behind these nanostructures is crucial for their application.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore and categorize common mechanisms underlying chiral nanostructures.
  • To review the diverse range of chiral nanostructures reported in the literature.
  • To highlight systems with original discoveries, exceptional characteristics, or unique mechanisms.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of the origin of chirality in simple systems (e.g., helical spring, hair vortex).
  • Categorization of chiral nanostructures based on material composition.
  • Categorization of chiral nanostructures based on underlying mechanisms.

Main Results:

  • Identification of common principles governing chirality in nanostructures.
  • Classification of various chiral nanostructures by material and mechanism.
  • Showcasing of novel and exceptional chiral nanostructure examples.

Conclusions:

  • Chirality in nanoscience presents significant opportunities beyond traditional applications.
  • A systematic categorization of chiral nanostructures aids in understanding their development.
  • Further research into unique mechanisms can drive innovation in chiral nanotechnology.