COLL 546 |
| Neville V. Richardson and Qiao Chen. School of Chemistry, University of St Andrews, North Haugh, St Andrews, KY16 9ST, United Kingdom |
| Molecular species, which are achiral as isolated species in the gas-phase or in solution, may become chiral, due to loss of symmetry elements and/or low energy pathways to the interconversion of enantiomers, when chemisorbed on a surface. A racemic mixture of adsorbed chiral species may, under suitable conditions, undergo chiral separation on the surface into ordered one or two dimensional structures. This is also the case for those molecules whose chirality is adsorption induced. These structures with well-defined local chirality may then be capable of distinguishing between enantiomers of other chiral molecules, subsequently adsorbed on the surface. The adsorption of adenine and phenylglycine on Cu(110) beautifully demonstrates these processes as revealed by STM, supported by LEED, surface vibrational spectroscopies and DFT calculations. |
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Chiral Surfaces
Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry |