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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.

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...

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...

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...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 24, 2025

Ultrahigh Density Array of Vertically Aligned Small-molecular Organic Nanowires on Arbitrary Substrates

Ultrahigh Density Array of Vertically Aligned Small-molecular Organic Nanowires on Arbitrary Substrates

Published on: June 18, 2013

Chirality-Enriched Carbon Nanotubes for Next-Generation Computing.

William A Gaviria Rojas¹, Mark C Hersam^1,2,3

¹Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA.

Advanced Materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.)

|April 8, 2020

Summary

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) offer superior properties for next-generation electronics. Chirality enrichment is key to unlocking their full potential in advanced computing devices.

Keywords:

carbon nanotubes chirality computing electronics photonics

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Last Updated: Dec 24, 2025

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Published on: June 18, 2013

Engineering Molecular Recognition with Bio-mimetic Polymers on Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes

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Fabrication of Low Temperature Carbon Nanotube Vertical Interconnects Compatible with Semiconductor Technology

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Published on: December 7, 2015

Area of Science:

Materials Science
Nanotechnology
Electronics Engineering

Background:

Silicon electronics face limitations with the rise of complex, non-traditional devices like wearables.
Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) possess exceptional electrical, optical, and mechanical properties, making them ideal for advanced applications.
Chirality-dependent properties of SWCNTs are crucial for developing novel electronic functionalities.

Purpose of the Study:

To review recent advancements in single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT)-based computing devices.
To emphasize the critical link between SWCNT chirality enrichment and enhanced electronic functionality.
To provide a roadmap for future SWCNT-based computing technologies.

Main Methods:

Review of scientific literature on SWCNT properties and synthesis.
Analysis of the relationship between SWCNT chirality and electronic performance.
Summarization of demonstrated SWCNT-based computing applications.

Main Results:

SWCNTs exhibit chirality-dependent properties enabling diverse electronic applications.
Chirality enrichment methods are essential for optimizing SWCNT electronic functionality.
Successful demonstrations of SWCNT-based transistors, optoelectronics, and sensors exist.

Conclusions:

Chirality-enriched SWCNTs are vital for next-generation computing.
Further research into chirality control and device integration is needed.
SWCNTs present a promising pathway beyond silicon for advanced electronics.