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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...

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...

Racemic Mixtures and the Resolution of Enantiomers

Racemic Mixtures and the Resolution of Enantiomers

A racemic mixture, or racemate, is an equimolar mixture of enantiomers of a molecule that can be separated using their unique interaction with chiral molecules or media. Racemic mixtures are denoted by the (±)- prefix. This ‘optical rotation descriptor’ applies to the whole solution of a racemic mixture rather than a specific stereoisomer. Enantiomers typically have the same physical and chemical properties. Hence, they are not easily separable. However, enantiomers can exhibit...

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...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 16, 2025

Self-assembling Morphologies Obtained from Helical Polycarbodiimide Copolymers and Their Triazole Derivatives

Self-assembling Morphologies Obtained from Helical Polycarbodiimide Copolymers and Their Triazole Derivatives

Published on: February 7, 2017

Confinement-induced chirality in phase-separated achiral polymer solutions.

Baichuan Kou¹, Jin-Sheng Wu², Yingshan Ma¹

¹Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3H6, Canada.

Science Advances

|July 9, 2025

Summary

Achiral polymers confined in narrow capillaries spontaneously form chiral nematic structures. This discovery offers a new method for creating chiral materials from simple synthetic polymers.

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Last Updated: Sep 16, 2025

Self-assembling Morphologies Obtained from Helical Polycarbodiimide Copolymers and Their Triazole Derivatives

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Published on: February 7, 2017

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A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality

A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality

Published on: March 11, 2022

Area of Science:

Soft Matter Physics
Polymer Science
Materials Science

Background:

Self-organization of polymers in confined spaces is crucial for advanced materials.
Chiral organization is known for polymers with inherent chirality, but not for achiral polymers.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the emergence of chirality in confined solutions of achiral polymers.
To understand the mechanisms driving chiral structure formation under spatial confinement.

Main Methods:

Confining achiral rigid-rod polymer solutions in narrow capillaries.
Inducing kinetically arrested phase separation.
Analyzing the resulting polymer structures using microscopy and structural analysis.

Main Results:

Observed the spontaneous emergence of chirality in achiral polymers under confinement.
Identified alternating isotropic and chiral nematic phases within the capillaries.
Demonstrated that confined geometry, surface anchoring, and polymer properties drive chiral nematic formation.
Chiral structures exhibited a catenoidal shape, mimicking biological structures.

Conclusions:

Spatial confinement can induce chirality in achiral polymers.
The interplay of geometry, surface interactions, and polymer properties dictates chiral organization.
This provides a novel route to synthesize chiral structures from achiral synthetic polymers for potential applications in materials science.