A molecular propeller effect for chiral separation and analysis
Open accessAbstract
Enantiomers share nearly identical physical properties but have different chiral geometries, making their identification and separation difficult. Here we show that when exposed to a rotating electric field, the left- and right-handed chiral molecules rotate with the field and act as microscopic propellers; moreover, owing to their opposite handedness, they propel along the axis of field rotation in opposite directions. We introduce a new molecular parameter called hydrodynamic chirality to characterize the coupling of rotational motion of a chiral molecule into its translational motion and quantify the direction and velocity of such motion. We demonstrate >80% enrichment level of counterpart enantiomers in solution without using chiral selectors or circularly polarized light. We expect our results to have an impact on multiple applications in drug discovery, analytical and chiral chemistry, including determination of absolute configuration, as well as in influencing the understanding of artificial and natural molecular systems where rotational motion of the molecules is involved.
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The molecular propeller effect allows enantiomers of two binaphthyl derivatives, upon exposition to rotating electric fields, to propel in opposite directions, leading to a local enrichment of up to 60% e.e.
“The so-called molecular propeller effect allows enantiomers of two binaphthyl derivatives, upon exposition to rotating electric fields (REF), to propel in opposite directions, leading to a local enrichment of up to 60% e.e. (Fig. 4).”
From Possible chemical and physical scenarios towards biological homochirality (2022) · cites this paper as [138]
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Possible chemical and physical scenarios towards biological homochirality
Sallembien, Q., Bouteiller, L., Crassous, J., & Raynal, M. (2022) · Chemical Society Reviews · doi:10.1039/d1cs01179k · Cited by 186 · see citing works
- Authors
- Clemens, J. B., Kibar, O., & Chachisvilis, M.
- Corresponding author
- Chachisvilis, Mirianas
- Venue
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2015-07-28
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 7868-7868
- ISSN
- 2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4525176
- OpenAlex
- W2261886039
- Cited by
- 31
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 1.49
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- erratum (2015-09-18)
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (GM103405, R44GM103405)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Chemistry › Spectroscopy › Molecular spectroscopy and chirality
- Physical Sciences › Chemistry › Spectroscopy › Analytical Chemistry and Chromatography
- Physical Sciences › Chemistry › Organic Chemistry › Supramolecular Chemistry and Complexes
- Keywords
- enantiomer separation, enantiomer enrichment, rotating electric field, chiral molecules, absolute configuration determination, chiral selectors
- MeSH terms
- Electricity, Rotation, Solutions, Stereoisomerism, Analytic Sample Preparation Methods
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