Abstract

Experiments are described in which enantiomerically pure dimers, trimers and oligomers, generated from non chiral monomers by crystallization and topochemical reaction in suitably designed chiral crystals, induce preferential crystallization of the parent monomer in the enatiomorphous chiral phase of opposite absolute configuration. (We coin the term "inversion rule" for this effect). A general mechanism of amplification of optical activity by crystallization is proposed on the basis of these results, involving selective adsorption of resolved impurities on the surface of chiral crystals of similar stereochemistry, resulting in a decrease of the growth rate of the affected enantiomer and consequent preferential crystallization of the antipode. The implications of this mechanism to the generation and amplification of chirality in a closed system are discussed.

Keywords

CrystallizationInversion (geology)Materials scienceChemical engineeringGeologyEngineeringPaleontology

MeSH Terms

CrystallizationModelsMolecularOptical RotationStereoisomerism

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Publication Info

Year
1981
Type
article
Volume
11
Issue
1-2
Pages
107-118
Citations
15
Access
Closed

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Cite This

Lia Addadi, J. Van Mil, E. Gati et al. (1981). Amplification of optical activity by crystallization in the presence of tailor-made additives. The ?inversion rule?. Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres , 11 (1-2) , 107-118. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00928002

Identifiers

DOI
10.1007/bf00928002
PMID
7231974

Data Quality

Data completeness: 81%