Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 29, 2026

A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality
Published on: March 11, 2022
The Chiral Trimer and a Metastable Chiral Dimer of Achiral Hexafluoroisopropanol: A Multi-Messenger Study
Sönke Oswald1, Nathan A Seifert2, Fabian Bohle3
1Institut für Physikalische Chemie, Georg-August Universität Göttingen, Tammannstraße 6, 37077, Göttingen, Germany.
Abstract:
1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-propan-2-ol aggregates preferentially into an achiral dimer of achiral monomers, but the trimer is found to prefer three metastable chiral monomer units arranged into a strained OH⋅⋅⋅O hydrogen-bonded ring, which is reinforced by secondary CH⋅⋅⋅FC interactions. This is shown by a combination of infrared, microwave, and Raman spectroscopy in supersonic jet expansions and supported by high-level quantum chemical calculations. It involves an activation of the monomers by >15 kJ mol-1 , clearly driven by the much stronger hydrogen-bond interaction available to the gauche and even more to the cis monomer units.
Related Concept Videos
Chirality
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 Nature
Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur
A consequence of chirality is the need for enantiomeric resolution. While this is theoretically possible for all...
Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers
What are Second Messengers?
Amplifying Signals via Second Messengers

