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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...

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...

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...

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...

Radicals: Electronic Structure and Geometry

Radicals: Electronic Structure and Geometry

This lesson delves into the geometry of a radical, which is influenced by the electronic structure of the molecule. The principle is similar to that of a lone pair, where the unpaired electron influences the geometry at the radical center.
Accordingly, the structure of a trivalent radical lies between the geometries of carbocations and carbanions. An sp2-hybridized carbocation is trigonal planar, while an sp3-hybridized carbanion is trigonal pyramidal. Here, the difference in geometry is...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 26, 2025

Fabrication of Three-Dimensional Graphene-Based Polyhedrons via Origami-Like Self-Folding

Fabrication of Three-Dimensional Graphene-Based Polyhedrons via Origami-Like Self-Folding

Published on: September 23, 2018

Graphene rolls with tunable chirality.

Enbing Zhang¹, Shuaishuai Ding¹, Xiaopeng Li^2,3,4

¹Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Optoelectronic Sciences & MOE Key Laboratory of Organic Integrated Circuits, Department of Chemistry, School of Science, School of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Precision Instrument and Optoelectronics Engineering, Institute of Molecular Aggregation Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China.

Nature Materials

|February 21, 2025

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Researchers developed a new method to create chiral graphene rolls, enabling tunable optical activity and spin selectivity for advanced spintronics. This breakthrough allows precise control over chirality in 2D materials.

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Fabricating van der Waals Heterostructures with Precise Rotational Alignment

Fabricating van der Waals Heterostructures with Precise Rotational Alignment

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Last Updated: May 26, 2025

Fabrication of Three-Dimensional Graphene-Based Polyhedrons via Origami-Like Self-Folding

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Published on: September 23, 2018

Fabrication of Gate-tunable Graphene Devices for Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Studies with Coulomb Impurities

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Fabricating van der Waals Heterostructures with Precise Rotational Alignment

Fabricating van der Waals Heterostructures with Precise Rotational Alignment

Published on: July 5, 2019

Area of Science:

Materials Science
Condensed Matter Physics
Nanotechnology

Background:

Creating chirality in achiral 2D materials like graphene is crucial for applications in optics, electronics, and spintronics.
Experimental control over material chirality remains a significant challenge, limiting research into chiro-electronic properties.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop a universal method for fabricating graphene rolls with controllable chiral angles.
To investigate the optical activity and spin selectivity of these chiral graphene structures.

Main Methods:

A novel wax-aided immersion technique was employed to create graphene rolls with tunable chiral angles.
The method was generalized for high-yield fabrication of other 2D materials.
Optical activity and spin polarization were measured at room temperature.

Main Results:

Left-handed and right-handed graphene rolls exhibiting optical activity were successfully produced.
Excellent spin selectivity effects were observed, with spin polarization exceeding 90% at room temperature.
A Dirac fermion model explained the observed chirality-induced spin selectivity.

Conclusions:

The developed method provides precise control over chirality in 2D materials, enabling tunable chirality-induced spin selectivity.
This technique opens avenues for novel quantum behaviors and room-temperature spintronic technologies.
The findings distinguish these tailored roll-shaped allotropes from other carbon or chiral materials.