PNNL

Abstract

The research described in this product was performed in part in the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a national scientific user facility sponsored by the Department of Energy's Office of Biological and Environmental Research and located at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Chirality has been a fascinating topic in chemistry, ever since its first observation by Biot in 1815. Its molecular basis was first understood by Pasteur in 1848. Enantiomers, identical in every way but mirror-images of each other, have similar physical properties, behave identically in chemical reactions with achiral molecules, but have very different interactions with chiral molecules. In recent decades, chirality has become an important direction in pharmaceutical research, as many drugs have stereoselective activity. This review focuses on a new aspect of chiral resolution on solid surfaces, and relationships between molecular structure, thermodynamic effects, and the result of chiral surface self-organization.