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Chirality is a symmetry property, not a property of any part of the periodic table. Thus many inorganic materials, molecules, and ions are chiral. Quartz is an example from the mineral kingdom. Such noncentric materials are of interest for applications in nonlinear optics.
Macroscopic examples of chirality are found in the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom and all other groups of organisms. A simple example is the coiling direction of any climber plant, which can grow to form either a left- or right-handed helix. In anatomy, chirality is found in the imperfect mirror image symmetry of many kinds of animal bodies.
Le Bel-van't Hoff rule states that for a structure with n asymmetric carbon atoms, there is a maximum of 2 n different stereoisomers possible. As an example, D-glucose is an aldohexose and has the formula C 6 H 12 O 6. Four of its six carbon atoms are stereogenic, which means D-glucose is one of 2 4 =16 possible stereoisomers. [20] [21]
Stereochemistry, a subdiscipline of chemistry, studies the spatial arrangement of atoms that form the structure of molecules and their manipulation. [1] The study of stereochemistry focuses on the relationships between stereoisomers, which are defined as having the same molecular formula and sequence of bonded atoms (constitution) but differing in the geometric positioning of the atoms in space.
A chirality center (chiral center) is a type of stereocenter. A chirality center is defined as an atom holding a set of four different ligands (atoms or groups of atoms) in a spatial arrangement which is non-superposable on its mirror image. Chirality centers must be sp 3 hybridized, meaning that a chirality center can only have single bonds. [5]
Atropisomers exhibit axial chirality (planar chirality). When the barrier to racemization is high, as illustrated by the BINAP ligands, the phenomenon becomes of practical value in asymmetric synthesis. Methaqualone, the anxiolytic and hypnotic-sedative, is a classical example of a drug molecule that exhibits the phenomenon of atropisomerism. [9]
The chirality of a molecule that has a helical, propeller, or screw-shaped geometry is called helicity [5] or helical chirality. [6] [7] The screw axis or the D n, or C n principle symmetry axis is considered to be the axis of chirality. Some sources consider helical chirality to be a type of axial chirality, [7] and some do not.
The two shapes are said to be chiral. A classical example is bromochlorofluoromethane (). The two enantiomers can be distinguished, for example, by whether the path turns clockwise or counterclockwise as seen from the hydrogen atom. In order to change one conformation to the other, at some point those four atoms would have to lie on the same ...