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.

Prochirality

Prochirality

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...

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...

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...

Stereoisomerism

Stereoisomerism

Isomerism in Complexes
Isomers are different chemical species that have the same chemical formula.
Transition metal complexes often exist as geometric isomers, in which the same atoms are connected through the same types of bonds but with differences in their orientation in space. Coordination complexes with two different ligands in the cis and trans positions from a ligand of interest form isomers. For example, the octahedral [Co(NH3)4Cl2]+ ion has two isomers (Figure 1) In the cis...

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by

Same author

Oxygen-driven doping of conjugated polymers in aqueous media <i>via</i> anion adsorption.

Nanoscale horizons·2026

Same author

Synthesis of bundle copolymers as an emergent class of copolymer architecture.

Nature communications·2026

Same author

Nanoarchitectonics of molecular machines, biomolecular machines, and microrobots in their collective behaviour.

Chemical science·2026

Same author

Controlled Pyrolysis of Polystyrene Using Metal-Organic Frameworks.

Journal of the American Chemical Society·2026

Same author

Computational study of the mass transfer effects in metal-organic framework columns for liquid chromatography.

Journal of chromatography. A·2026

Same author

Structural evolution of BaMoO<sub>4</sub> upon Zn doping and its influence on electrochemical behavior in hybrid supercapacitors.

Dalton transactions (Cambridge, England : 2003)·2026

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 26, 2025

Assembly of Gold Nanorods into Chiral Plasmonic Metamolecules Using DNA Origami Templates

Assembly of Gold Nanorods into Chiral Plasmonic Metamolecules Using DNA Origami Templates

Published on: March 5, 2019

Supramolecular Chiral Nanoarchitectonics.

Katsuhiko Ariga^1,2, Taizo Mori^1,2, Takashi Kitao^2,3

¹WPI-MANA, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0044, Japan.

Advanced Materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.)

|March 20, 2020

Summary

Chiral nanoarchitectonics enables the creation of advanced materials with unique properties from both chiral and achiral building blocks. This supramolecular strategy offers universal advantages for diverse applications.

Keywords:

chirality liquid crystals metal-organic frameworks nanoarchitectonics supramolecular assembly

More Related Videos

Construction and Systematical Symmetric Studies of a Series of Supramolecular Clusters with Binary or Ternary Ammonium Triphenylacetates

Construction and Systematical Symmetric Studies of a Series of Supramolecular Clusters with Binary or Ternary Ammonium Triphenylacetates

Published on: February 15, 2016

Author Spotlight: Developing Synthetic Cells from Programmable Amphiphilic DNA Nanostructures

Author Spotlight: Developing Synthetic Cells from Programmable Amphiphilic DNA Nanostructures

Published on: May 31, 2024

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Dec 26, 2025

Assembly of Gold Nanorods into Chiral Plasmonic Metamolecules Using DNA Origami Templates

Assembly of Gold Nanorods into Chiral Plasmonic Metamolecules Using DNA Origami Templates

Published on: March 5, 2019

Construction and Systematical Symmetric Studies of a Series of Supramolecular Clusters with Binary or Ternary Ammonium Triphenylacetates

Construction and Systematical Symmetric Studies of a Series of Supramolecular Clusters with Binary or Ternary Ammonium Triphenylacetates

Published on: February 15, 2016

Author Spotlight: Developing Synthetic Cells from Programmable Amphiphilic DNA Nanostructures

Author Spotlight: Developing Synthetic Cells from Programmable Amphiphilic DNA Nanostructures

Published on: May 31, 2024

Area of Science:

Materials Science
Supramolecular Chemistry
Nanotechnology

Background:

Controlling molecular chirality is key to unlocking novel material functions and properties.
Supramolecular nanoarchitectonics provides a framework for designing chiral materials.

Purpose of the Study:

To discuss the fabrication and function of chiral-featured materials using supramolecular nanoarchitectonics.
To explore chiral nanoarchitectonics in general molecular assemblies, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), and liquid crystals.

Main Methods:

Fabrication of chiral-featured materials from chiral and achiral components.
Utilizing supramolecular nanoarchitectonics principles.
Analyzing representative material systems including MOFs and liquid crystals.

Main Results:

Demonstrated universal importance of supramolecular chiral nanoarchitectonics across different material types.
Showcased amplification of chiral information from molecular to material levels.
Highlighted the creation of chirality from achiral components via statistical fluctuations.

Conclusions:

Supramolecular chiral nanoarchitectonics is a universal strategy for designing functional chiral materials.
The approach offers advantageous characteristics for a wide range of applications.
Chirality amplification and de novo creation are key features of this methodology.