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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

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...

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...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Oct 3, 2025

Self-assembling Morphologies Obtained from Helical Polycarbodiimide Copolymers and Their Triazole Derivatives

Self-assembling Morphologies Obtained from Helical Polycarbodiimide Copolymers and Their Triazole Derivatives

Published on: February 7, 2017

Hierarchical self-assembly into chiral nanostructures.

Yutao Sang¹, Minghua Liu¹

¹Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Science (BNLMS), CAS Key Laboratory of Colloid, Interface and Chemical Thermodynamics, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100190 China liumh@iccas.ac.cn.

Chemical Science

|February 17, 2022

Summary

Chiral hierarchical self-assembly uses asymmetric building blocks to create complex nanostructures. This strategy enables unique functions beyond single units, advancing materials science and supramolecular chemistry.

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Last Updated: Oct 3, 2025

Self-assembling Morphologies Obtained from Helical Polycarbodiimide Copolymers and Their Triazole Derivatives

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Published on: February 7, 2017

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Published on: November 21, 2013

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Area of Science:

Materials Science
Supramolecular Chemistry
Nanotechnology

Background:

Self-assembly is regulated by building block asymmetry.
Asymmetry offers a route to manipulate molecular devices and functional materials.
Chirality is a key aspect of asymmetry in self-assembly.

Purpose of the Study:

To demonstrate the utility of chirality in designing and constructing chiral nanostructures.
To explore the development of unique functions from chiral nanostructures.
To discuss future prospects of chiral nanostructures via hierarchical self-assembly.

Main Methods:

Focus on chiral hierarchical self-assembly.
Utilizing asymmetry in building blocks and packing models.
Examining recent achievements in chiral nanostructure construction.

Main Results:

Chirality can be effectively utilized for designing highly ordered chiral nanostructures.
Complex chiral nanostructures exhibit unique functions.
Hierarchical self-assembly provides a strategy for advanced material design.

Conclusions:

Chiral hierarchical self-assembly is a powerful strategy for creating functional nanostructures.
Exploiting chirality in nanostructures offers advantages over single units.
This approach holds significant promise for future materials development.