Stereochemical vocabulary for structures that are chiral but not asymmetric: History, analysis, and proposal for a rational terminology

A Facile and Rational Method to Tailor the Symmetry of Au@Ag Nanoparticles

Precisely controlling the morphologies of plasmonic metal nanoparticles (NPs) is of great importance for many applications. Here, a facile seed-mediated growth method is demonstrated that tailors the morphologies of Au@Ag NPs from cubes/cuboids to chiral truncated cuboids/octahedra, well-defined octahedra, and tetrahedra, via simply increasing the concentrations of AgNO₃  and cysteine in the halide surfactant systems. Accordingly, the particle symmetries are also tuned. The method is quite robust where seeds with distinct shapes including irregular ones can all lead to uniform Au@Ag NPs. The evolution of these shapes can be illustrated by a recently proposed symmetry-based kinematic theory (SBKT). Furthermore, SBKT shows a strategy to optimize the preparation of chiral/dissymmetric NPs, and the experimental results confirm such a dissymmetric synthesis strategy. Cuboids and octahedra with corners differently truncated are identified as two different chiral forms. The chirality of the NPs is additionally probed by electrochemistry, where the chiral NPs show enantioselectivity in the oxidation of d- and l-glucose. Altogether, the results gain fundamental insights into tailoring the plasmonic NP morphologies, and also suggest strategies to obtain chiral NPs.

Recognition in the Domain of Molecular Chirality: From Noncovalent Interactions to Separation of Enantiomers

It is not a coincidence that both chirality and noncovalent interactions are ubiquitous in nature and synthetic molecular systems. Noncovalent interactivity between chiral molecules underlies enantioselective recognition as a fundamental phenomenon regulating life and human activities. Thus, noncovalent interactions represent the narrative thread of a fascinating story which goes across several disciplines of medical, chemical, physical, biological, and other natural sciences. This review has been conceived with the awareness that a modern attitude toward molecular chirality and its consequences needs to be founded on multidisciplinary approaches to disclose the molecular basis of essential enantioselective phenomena in the domain of chemical, physical, and life sciences. With the primary aim of discussing this topic in an integrated way, a comprehensive pool of rational and systematic multidisciplinary information is provided, which concerns the fundamentals of chirality, a description of noncovalent interactions, and their implications in enantioselective processes occurring in different contexts. A specific focus is devoted to enantioselection in chromatography and electromigration techniques because of their unique feature as "multistep" processes. A second motivation for writing this review is to make a clear statement about the state of the art, the tools we have at our disposal, and what is still missing to fully understand the mechanisms underlying enantioselective recognition.

Through a Glass Darkly—Some Thoughts on Symmetry and Chemistry

This article reviews the development of concepts of chirality in chemistry. The story follows the parallel development of the optical properties of materials and the understanding of chemical structure until the two are fused in the recognition of the tetrahedral carbon atom in 1874. The different types of chiral molecule that have been identified since the first concept of the asymmetric carbon atom are introduced as is the notation used in various disciplines of chemistry to describe the relative or absolute configuration. In the final section, a polemical case for a unified nomenclature is presented.

When Stereochemistry Raised Its Ugly Head in Coordination Chemistry—An Appreciation of Howard Flack

Chiral compounds have played an important role in the development of coordination chemistry. Unlike organic chemistry, where mechanistic rules allowed the establishment of absolute configurations for numerous compounds once a single absolute determination had been made, coordination compounds are more complex. This article discusses the development of crystallographic methods and the interplay with coordination chemistry. Most importantly, the development of the Flack parameter is identified as providing a routine method for determining the absolute configuration of coordination compounds.

In defense of Louis Pasteur: Critique of Gerald Geison's deconstruction of Pasteur's discovery of molecular chirality

Louis Pasteur discovered the phenomenon of molecular chirality, based on his studies of tartrate crystals. His finding remains one of the most important discoveries in the history of chemistry and a fundamentally important chemical phenomenon, with essential implications in biology. In his 1995 book The Private Science of Louis Pasteur, the eminent historian of science Gerald L. Geison (1943-2001) was highly critical of much of Pasteur's work including his discovery of molecular chirality. The in-depth analysis provided in this article indicates, however, that the negative assessment of Pasteur's chirality work by Geison is entirely without scientific basis. Criticisms of Pasteur in the book for other "transgressions" in his chirality work, such as supposed influences of his personal biases and stubbornly held a priori notions, misrepresentation of his scientific work in his publications and lectures, and unethical and career-minded conduct, are also not supported by the evidence. Other troubling features of the book include a broad failure to assure accuracy in a variety of fundamental and important information, including errors in names, dates, events, referencing, indexing, and French-language text.

Mechanistic studies of 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions of bicyclic thioisomünchnones with alkenes. A computational rationale focused on donor-acceptor interactions

This paper describes a mechanistic study, with the interplay of experiment and theory, on the cycloadditions of a bicyclic mesoionic 1,3-dipole versus a series of representative symmetrical (1-phenyl-1H-pyrrole-2,5-dione and dimethyl maleate) and asymmetrical [(E)-(2-nitrovinyl)benzene, acrylonitrile, and but-3-en-2-one] olefinic dipolarophiles. These results allow a comparative analysis with monocyclic dipoles and open further avenues to structurally diversified heteroatom-rich rings. The unichiral version of the bicyclic dipole leads to adducts containing up to five chiral centers, whose formation proceeds with high levels of facial stereoinduction in reactions involving bulky dipolarophiles. The second and largest part of this study provides a theoretical interrogation on the pericyclic mechanism with DFT-methods [M06-2X/6-311++G(d,p)]. In order to get further mechanistic insights, we have also explored charge transfers between reaction partners using NBO analysis, which satisfactorily justifies the stereochemical outcome.

Introduction of axial chirality at a spiro carbon atom in the synthesis of pentaerythritol-imine macrocycles

Novel chiral macrocyclic polyimines with spiro carbon atoms are described. The key feature of the synthesis is the formation of an axially chiral quaternary carbon atom having four constitutionally identical substituents. This is possible either by the freezing of the labile conformation of a spiro-diboronate moiety or by the diastereomeric fitting of a conformationally stable spiro-acetal moiety into a chiral framework. A general model for the description of this type of axial chirality is proposed.

Supramolecular helices: chirality transfer from conjugated molecules to structures

Different scales of chirality endow a material with many excellent properties and potential applications. In this review, using π-conjugated molecules as functional building blocks, recent progress on supramolecular helices inspired by biological helicity is summarized. First, induced chirality on conjugated polymers and small molecules is introduced. Molecular chirality can be amplified to nanostructures, superstructures, and even macroscopic structures by a self-assembly process. Then, the principles for tuning the helicity of supramolecular chirality, as well as formation of helical heterojunctions, are summarized. Finally, the potential applications of chiral structures in chiral sensing and organic electronic devices are critically reviewed. Due to recent progress in chiral structures, an interdisciplinary area called "chiral electronics" is expected to gain wide popularity in the near future.

Early history of the recognition of molecular biochirality

This opening chapter recalls the history of the discoveries that led to the appreciation of the nature and importance of molecular chirality in biology, as well as the development of stereochemistry as an interdisciplinary field connecting chemistry and biology. The discoveries described cover roughly the period of ca. 1840-1940, although certain relevant events of earlier or later times are also addressed. A large number of chiral substances occur in nature in unichiral (i.e., single-enantiomer) form, and for centuries many such substances were used in crude extracts for relief from diseases. For the science of biochirality, the first milestone was the discovery of molecular chirality by Louis Pasteur in 1848. Thereafter, fundamental advances were made, beginning in 1857 with Pasteur's discovery of biological enantioselectivity, in the metabolism of (±)-tartaric acid. With the advances in organic chemistry during the second half of the nineteenth century, the structures of many organic molecules were elucidated and new chiral compounds synthesized, and by the turn of the twentieth century studies of stereoselectivity in the biological activity or enzymatic transformations of natural or synthetic substances were proliferating, and chiroselectivity was often found. Among the names associated with important discoveries in biochirality appear Pasteur, Piutti, Fischer, Cushny, Easson and Stedman, and others. The findings soon prompted attempts to explain the phenomenon of enantioselectivity in biological action, beginning with Pasteur's proposal to account for enantioselectivity in the metabolism of tartaric acid. In 1894 Fischer announced his "lock-and-key" metaphor to explain enantioselectivity in enzyme-substrate interactions and in 1933 Easson and Stedman advanced the first chemical-structure-based model, the three-point-attachment paradigm, to rationalize enantioselectivity at adrenergic receptors. This model has been generalized as the simplest basis for enantioselectivity in biological activity. Today molecular chirality is widely recognized as an important modulator of the effects of chiral substances in a variety of branches of biology and medicine.