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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.

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...

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...

Stereoisomerism of Cyclic Compounds

Stereoisomerism of Cyclic Compounds

In this lesson, we delve into the role of ring conformation and its stability, which determines the spatial arrangement and, consequently, the molecular symmetry and stereoisomerism of cyclic compounds. 1,2-Dimethylcyclohexane is used as a case study to evaluate the possible number of stereoisomers. Here, given the multiple (n = 2) chiral centers, there are 2n = 4 possible configurations that lack a plane of symmetry, as the ring skeleton exists in a non-planar chair conformation. In addition,...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Aug 18, 2025

Gene Digital Circuits Based on CRISPR-Cas Systems and Anti-CRISPR Proteins

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Published on: October 18, 2022

Chirality logic gates.

Yi Zhang^1,2, Yadong Wang¹, Yunyun Dai¹

¹Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering, Aalto University, Espoo 02150, Finland.

Science Advances

|December 9, 2022

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Researchers developed ultrafast optical chirality logic gates using crystal symmetry rules. This breakthrough enables faster optical computing by leveraging chirality for simultaneous operations in a single device.

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Area of Science:

Optoelectronics
Materials Science
Quantum Computing

Background:

Growing demand for faster data processing fuels optical computing research.
Chirality, a property of asymmetry, offers a novel degree of freedom for computation.
Existing optical computing methods face limitations in speed and efficiency.

Purpose of the Study:

To introduce a universal optical computing approach utilizing the chirality degree of freedom.
To demonstrate the feasibility of all-optical chirality logic gates.
To explore the potential of optical chirality for next-generation computing.

Main Methods:

Exploiting crystal symmetry-enabled chiral selection rules.
Implementing logic gates (XNOR, NOR, AND, XOR, OR, NAND) and a half adder.
Utilizing bulk silica crystals and atomically thin semiconductors.

Main Results:

Creation of ultrafast (<100 femtoseconds) all-optical chirality logic gates.
Demonstration of simultaneous operation of multiple gates on a single device.
Validation of electrical control for chirality-based optical computing.

Conclusions:

Optical chirality, via chiral selection rules, provides a powerful new dimension for optical computing.
This approach enables the development of high-speed, efficient optical logic gates.
The findings pave the way for advanced optical processors and next-generation computing architectures.