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Updated: Apr 11, 2026

Enzymatic Cascade Reactions for the Synthesis of Chiral Amino Alcohols from L-lysine
Published on: February 16, 2018
Spontaneous Generation of Chirality in Simple Diaryl Ethers
Anders Lennartson1, Anna Hedström2, Mikael Håkansson2
1Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Abstract:
We studied the spontaneous formation of chiral crystals of four diaryl ethers, 3-phenoxybenzaldehyde, 1; 1,3-dimethyl-2-phenoxybenzene, 2; di(4-aminophenyl) ether, 3; and di(p-tolyl) ether, 4. Compounds 1, 3, and 4 form conformationally chiral molecules in the solid state, while the chirality of 2 arises from the formation of supramolecular helices. Compound 1 is a liquid at ambient temperature, but 2-4 are crystalline, and solid-state CD-spectroscopy showed that they could be obtained as optically active bulk samples. It should be noted that the optical activity arise upon crystallization, and no optically active precursors were used. Indeed, even commercial samples of 3 and 4 were found to be optically active, giving evidence for the ease at which total spontaneous resolution may occur in certain systems.
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