Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Chirality

Chirality

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...

Chirality in Nature

Chirality in Nature

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.

Electro-mechanical Systems

Electro-mechanical Systems

Electromechanical systems are intricate configurations that effectively combine electrical and mechanical elements to achieve a desired outcome. Central to many of these systems is the DC motor, a device that converts electrical energy into mechanical motion, enabling various applications ranging from simple fans to complex robotic mechanisms.
A key component of the DC motor is the armature, a rotating circuit positioned within a magnetic field. As an electric current passes through the...

Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers

Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers

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...

Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur

Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur

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...

Members Made of Elastoplastic Material

Members Made of Elastoplastic Material

The behavior of elastoplastic materials under bending stresses, particularly in structural members with rectangular cross-sections, is crucial for predicting material responses and understanding failure modes. Initially, when a bending moment is applied, the stress distribution across the section follows Hooke's Law and is linear and elastic. This distribution means the stress increases from the neutral axis to the maximum at the outer fibers, up to the elastic limit.
As the bending moment...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Structurally Encoded Mixed Proton-Electron Transport in Tetrathiafulvalene-Based Lanthanide MOFs.

Journal of the American Chemical Society·2026

Same author

Enantiospecific Magnetoconductance Asymmetry in a Racemic Conglomerate Driven by Surface-Assisted Symmetry Breaking.

Journal of the American Chemical Society·2026

Same author

Beyond the Solid Solution: Ordered Enantiomerically Unbalanced Packing in Surface-Confined Tetrahelicene Monolayers.

Chirality·2026

Same author

Chiral Metallic DM-EDT-TTF Radical Cation Salts: Anion Size-Dependent Structural and Electronic Transitions, Charge Ordering, and Chirality-Induced Spin Selectivity.

Journal of the American Chemical Society·2025

Same author

Regioisomerism Induced Circularly Polarized Luminescence Switching in Natural (+)-Camphor-Based Bis(pyrazolyl)pyridine Europium(III) Complexes.

Inorganic chemistry·2025

Same author

Single-molecule junctions map the interplay between electrons and chirality.

Nature communications·2025

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 26, 2026

A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality

A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality

Published on: March 11, 2022

Main-Group-Based Electro- and Photoactive Chiral Materials.

Flavia Pop¹, Nicolas Zigon¹, Narcis Avarvari¹

¹Laboratoire MOLTECH-Anjou , UMR 6200 CNRS- Université d'Angers , UFR Sciences, Bât. K, 2 Bd. Lavoisier , 49045 Angers Cedex, France.

Chemical Reviews

|April 4, 2019

Summary

Chiral molecules and materials containing main-group elements exhibit unique optical and conducting properties. These advanced materials offer new possibilities in optics and materials science.

More Related Videos

Enzymatic Cascade Reactions for the Synthesis of Chiral Amino Alcohols from L-lysine

Enzymatic Cascade Reactions for the Synthesis of Chiral Amino Alcohols from L-lysine

Published on: February 16, 2018

Strain Sensing Based on Multiscale Composite Materials Reinforced with Graphene Nanoplatelets

Strain Sensing Based on Multiscale Composite Materials Reinforced with Graphene Nanoplatelets

Published on: November 7, 2016

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jan 26, 2026

A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality

A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality

Published on: March 11, 2022

Enzymatic Cascade Reactions for the Synthesis of Chiral Amino Alcohols from L-lysine

Enzymatic Cascade Reactions for the Synthesis of Chiral Amino Alcohols from L-lysine

Published on: February 16, 2018

Strain Sensing Based on Multiscale Composite Materials Reinforced with Graphene Nanoplatelets

Strain Sensing Based on Multiscale Composite Materials Reinforced with Graphene Nanoplatelets

Published on: November 7, 2016

Area of Science:

Materials Science
Chemistry
Physics

Background:

Chirality is a fundamental property influencing biological, chemical, and physical processes.
Chirality's interaction with light leads to optical effects like the Cotton effect and circularly polarized luminescence, enabling applications in 3D displays and polarized sunglasses.

Purpose of the Study:

To review structure-property relationships in chiral molecules, macromolecules, and supramolecules containing main-group elements.
To emphasize the impact of chirality on the conducting and optical properties of materials with frontier heteroelements (boron, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur).

Main Methods:

This review synthesizes existing research on chiral materials.
Focuses on structure-property correlations in main-group element-containing chiral systems.

Main Results:

Chirality significantly influences the optical and conducting properties of molecules and materials.
Materials incorporating boron, silicon, phosphorus, and sulfur exhibit novel properties.

Conclusions:

Chiral materials with main-group elements are poised to revolutionize materials science.
Emerging properties include chirality-induced spin-selectivity, circularly polarized luminescence, and electrical magnetochiral anisotropy.