Physical and Chemical Rationalization for Asymmetric Amplification in Autocatalytic Reactions

✍ Scribed by Frederic G. Buono; Hiroshi Iwamura; Donna G. Blackmond

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 133 KB
• Volume: 43
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0044-8249
• DOI: 10.1002/anie.200353086

✦ Synopsis

The origin of biological homochirality has intrigued scientists for some time. Discussions of possible mechanisms through which high optical activity was achieved from a racemic or prochiral prebiotic environment [1,2] have implicated both physical processes such as crystallization [3] and chemical processes such as autocatalysis. [4] Kondepudi [2] first reported spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in crystallization little more than 10 years ago. In the last decade, Soai and coworkers [5] demonstrated the chemical phenomenon of asymmetric autocatalysis in remarkable reactions involving pyrimidyl alcohols that serve as both the catalyst and the product in the alkylation of pyrimidyl aldehydes. When alcohol 2 is used in very low enantiomeric excess as a catalyst in the