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Updated: May 16, 2026

Development of Heterogeneous Enantioselective Catalysts using Chiral Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs)
Published on: January 17, 2020
Mirror symmetry breaking with limited enantioselective autocatalysis and temperature gradients: a stability survey
Celia Blanco1, Josep M Ribó, Joaquim Crusats
1Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA), Ctra. Ajalvir Km. 4, 28850 Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain. blancodtc@cab.inta-csic.es
Abstract:
We analyze limited enantioselective (LES) autocatalysis in a temperature gradient and with internal flow/recycling of hot and cold material. Microreversibility forbids broken mirror symmetry for LES in the presence of a temperature gradient alone. This symmetry can be broken however when the auto-catalysis and limited enantioselective catalysis are each localized within the regions of low and high temperature, respectively. This scheme has been recently proposed as a plausible model for spontaneous emergence of chirality in abyssal hydrothermal vents. Regions in chemical parameter space are mapped out in which the racemic state is unstable and bifurcates to chiral solutions.
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