Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Chirality in Nature02:30

Chirality in Nature

13.9K
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.
13.9K
Prochirality02:05

Prochirality

4.0K
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...
4.0K
Properties of Enantiomers and Optical Activity02:24

Properties of Enantiomers and Optical Activity

17.8K
It is essential to understand the difference between chiral and achiral interactions and the implications thereof in optical activity and their applications. Just as our feet, which are chiral, interact uniquely with chiral objects, such as a pair of shoes, but identically with achiral socks, enantiomers of a molecule exhibit different properties only when they interact with other chiral media. An example of a significant implication from this facet is the phenomenon known as optical activity,...
17.8K
Chirality02:25

Chirality

25.5K
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...
25.5K
Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers02:25

Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers

12.4K
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...
12.4K
¹H NMR Chemical Shift Equivalence: Enantiotopic and Diastereotopic Protons00:58

¹H NMR Chemical Shift Equivalence: Enantiotopic and Diastereotopic Protons

2.0K
Replacing each alpha-hydrogen in chloroethane by bromine (or a different functional group) yields a pair of enantiomers. Such protons are called prochiral or enantiotopic and are related by a mirror plane. Enantiotopic protons are chemically equivalent in an achiral environment. Because most proton NMR spectra are recorded using achiral solvents, enantiotopic hydrogens yield a single signal.
In chiral compounds such as 2-butanol, replacing the methylene hydrogens at C3 produces a pair of...
2.0K

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Ultrasensitive Label-Free Detection of Free Thyroxine (T4) in Physiological Ranges Using Aptamer-Functionalized Silicon Nanowire Field Effect Transistors.

Biosensors·2026
Same author

On-demand linkage cleavage in two-dimensional conjugated metal-organic frameworks for closed-loop recyclable electronics.

Science advances·2026
Same author

Machine-Learned Electrostatic Potentials for Accurate Hydration Free Energy Calculations.

Journal of chemical theory and computation·2026
Same author

Structural and Physical Properties of Chitosan Films Containing UV-Driven <i>In Situ</i> Growth of Silver Nanoparticles.

ACS omega·2026
Same author

Mechanically interlocked monolayer and bilayer two-dimensional polymers with high elastic modulus.

Nature synthesis·2026
Same author

Advancing density functional tight-binding method for large organic molecules through equivariant neural networks.

Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP·2026

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 17, 2025

Coulomb Explosion Imaging as a Tool to Distinguish Between Stereoisomers
08:51

Coulomb Explosion Imaging as a Tool to Distinguish Between Stereoisomers

Published on: August 18, 2017

10.5K

Are nonequilibrium effects relevant for chiral molecule discrimination?

Federico Ravera1, Leonardo Medrano Sandonas2, Rafael Gutierrez2

  • 1Department of Electronics and Telecommunications, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Torino, Italy.

The Journal of Chemical Physics
|July 1, 2025
PubMed
Summary

This study shows that even achiral graphene nanoribbons can distinguish between chiral molecules. Nonequilibrium effects significantly alter electrical currents, enabling enantiomer discrimination in molecular sensors.

More Related Videos

Spatial Separation of Molecular Conformers and Clusters
10:37

Spatial Separation of Molecular Conformers and Clusters

Published on: January 9, 2014

9.1K
CD Spectroscopy to Study DNA-Protein Interactions
06:48

CD Spectroscopy to Study DNA-Protein Interactions

Published on: February 10, 2022

7.0K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Sep 17, 2025

Coulomb Explosion Imaging as a Tool to Distinguish Between Stereoisomers
08:51

Coulomb Explosion Imaging as a Tool to Distinguish Between Stereoisomers

Published on: August 18, 2017

10.5K
Spatial Separation of Molecular Conformers and Clusters
10:37

Spatial Separation of Molecular Conformers and Clusters

Published on: January 9, 2014

9.1K
CD Spectroscopy to Study DNA-Protein Interactions
06:48

CD Spectroscopy to Study DNA-Protein Interactions

Published on: February 10, 2022

7.0K

Area of Science:

  • Materials Science
  • Computational Chemistry
  • Nanotechnology

Background:

  • Chiral molecule enantiomer sensing is crucial but challenging for sensor design.
  • Chemoresistive sensors typically require chirality-sensitive receptors on the substrate.
  • Graphene nanoribbons are explored as potential chirality-blind substrates for enantioselective sensing.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if a chirality-blind substrate (graphene nanoribbon) can discriminate between enantiomers.
  • To explore the role of nonequilibrium effects in chiral discrimination.
  • To propose new quantum-mechanical metrics for enantioselective molecular sensing.

Main Methods:

  • Density-functional parameterized tight-binding method.
  • Nonequilibrium Green's functions (NEGF).
  • Computational simulation of chiral amino acid interactions with graphene nanoribbons.

Main Results:

  • Significant differences in electrical currents (tens of nanoamperes) observed between enantiomeric pairs due to nonequilibrium response.
  • Effect amplified by structural fluctuations (≈1-2 μA).
  • Demonstrated quantum-mechanical quantities for enantioselective discrimination, focusing on binding and property correlations.

Conclusions:

  • Nonequilibrium effects are significant for chiral discrimination in molecular sensors.
  • Graphene nanoribbons can be utilized for enantioselective sensing without specific chiral receptors.
  • Findings provide a foundation for designing advanced chiral molecular sensors.