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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...

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Updated: Mar 3, 2026

Development of Heterogeneous Enantioselective Catalysts using Chiral Metal-Organic Frameworks MOFs

Development of Heterogeneous Enantioselective Catalysts using Chiral Metal-Organic Frameworks MOFs

Published on: January 17, 2020

Chiral metallosupramolecular architectures.

Li-Jun Chen¹, Hai-Bo Yang, Mitsuhiko Shionoya

¹Shanghai Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Chemical Processes, Department of Chemistry, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, P. R. China. hbyang@chem.ecnu.edu.cn.

Chemical Society Reviews

|April 29, 2017

Summary

This review summarizes discrete chiral coordination-driven supramolecular architectures. It emphasizes recent developments in homochiral metallo-assemblies using chiral or achiral components for applications in chiral recognition and catalysis.

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Development of Heterogeneous Enantioselective Catalysts using Chiral Metal-Organic Frameworks MOFs

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Published on: January 17, 2020

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Area of Science:

Supramolecular Chemistry
Coordination Chemistry
Chirality

Background:

Discrete supramolecular chirality in metallosupramolecular architectures is a growing field.
Coordination-driven self-assembly enables the construction of complex chiral structures.

Purpose of the Study:

To provide a comprehensive summary of discrete, chiral coordination-driven structures.
To highlight recent advancements in metallosupramolecular architectures derived from chiral components.
To discuss the potential applications of homochiral metallosupramolecular architectures.

Main Methods:

Review of existing literature on coordination-driven self-assembly.
Focus on chiral scaffolds (ligands) and achiral components leading to homochirality.
Analysis of structural diversity including helices, metallacycles, and metallocages.

Main Results:

Detailed overview of various discrete chiral metallosupramolecular architectures.
Emphasis on strategies for introducing chirality, particularly from chiral ligands or ligand twisting.
Exploration of homochiral assemblies using both chiral and achiral building blocks.

Conclusions:

Chirality in metallosupramolecular architectures can be controlled through ligand design and assembly processes.
Homochiral assemblies offer significant potential for advanced applications.
Future research directions include designing more complex architectures for enhanced functionalities.