Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 1, 2025

Author Spotlight: Improving the Production of Self-Assembling Fibers and Peptide Hydrogels for Superior Biocompatibility
Published on: September 6, 2024
Chirality-directed hydrogel assembly and interactions with enantiomers of an active pharmaceutical ingredient
Anna K Patterson1, Lamisse H El-Qarra1, David K Smith1
1Department of Chemistry, University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD, UK. david.smith@york.ac.uk.
Abstract:
Enantiomers of the low-molecular-weight gelator (LMWG) DBS-CONHNH2, based on D- or L- 1,3 : 2,4-dibenzylidenesorbitol (DBS), were synthesised. Enantiomeric gels are equivalent, but when mixtures of enantiomers are used, although gels still form, they are weaker than homochiral gels. Nanoscale chirality is lost on adding even a small proportion of the opposite enantiomer - homochiral assembly underpins effective gelation. Enantiomeric gels encapsulate the two enantiomers of anti-inflammatory drug naproxen, with thermal & mechanical differences between diastereomeric systems. We hence demonstrate the importance of chirality in DBS assembly and its interactions with chiral additives.
Related Concept Videos
Racemic Mixtures and the Resolution of Enantiomers
Prochirality
Chirality in Nature
Properties of Enantiomers and Optical Activity
Regioselectivity and Stereochemistry of Acid-Catalyzed Hydration
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...

