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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.

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

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...

Photochemical Electrocyclic Reactions: Stereochemistry

Photochemical Electrocyclic Reactions: Stereochemistry

The absorption of UV–visible light by conjugated systems causes the promotion of an electron from the ground state to the excited state. Consequently, photochemical electrocyclic reactions proceed via the excited-state HOMO rather than the ground-state HOMO. Since the ground- and excited-state HOMOs have different symmetries, the stereochemical outcome of electrocyclic reactions depends on the mode of activation; i.e., thermal or photochemical.
Selection Rules: Photochemical Activation

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...

Radical Halogenation: Stereochemistry

Radical Halogenation: Stereochemistry

Stereochemistry is the study of the different spatial arrangements of atoms in a given molecule. The stereochemistry of radical halogenations can be understood from three different situations:
Halogenation to form a new chiral center:

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An Electrochemical Cholesteric Liquid Crystalline Device for Quick and Low-Voltage Color Modulation

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Light-triggered Modulation of Supramolecular Chirality.

Fan Yang¹, Bingbing Yue^1,2, Liangliang Zhu²

¹School of Materials and Chemistry, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200093, P. R. China.

Chemistry (Weinheim an Der Bergstrasse, Germany)

|January 18, 2023

Summary

Light dynamically controls supramolecular chirality in functional materials. This review covers light-responsive chiral assemblies, including photochemical reactions and physical methods, for advanced applications.

Keywords:

chirality regulation circularly polarized light light-triggered systems non-polarized light self-assembly supramolecular chirality

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Area of Science:

Supramolecular Chemistry
Materials Science
Photochemistry

Background:

Controlling supramolecular chirality is crucial for developing advanced functional chiral materials.
Light offers a remote and precise method for modulating chiral assemblies.
Existing methods involve photochemical reactions or photo-induced assembly.

Purpose of the Study:

To systematically review recent advancements in light-responsive chiral assembled systems.
To explore diverse strategies for light-triggered control of supramolecular chirality.
To provide insights into the construction and applications of these systems for multifunctional nanomaterials.

Main Methods:

Utilizing photochemically reactive units (e.g., azobenzene, spiropyran) for chiral transfer.
Employing photo-induced molecular motors for directional chiral amplification.
Investigating photoexcitation-induced assembly and circularly polarized light (CPL) effects.

Main Results:

Non-polarized light control achieved via photochemical units and molecular motors.
Photoexcitation-induced assembly offers physical regulation beyond photochemical reactions.
Circularly polarized light demonstrates control over molecular arrangement and nanomaterial synthesis, influenced by wavelength and handedness.

Conclusions:

Light-responsive chiral assemblies are versatile for applications in photoelectric materials, biomedicine, catalysis, and sensing.
A comprehensive understanding of light-matter interactions is key to designing sophisticated chiral nanomaterials.
This review highlights current trends and future perspectives in light-controlled chiral systems.