Conservation of helical asymmetry in chiral interactions

A theory for chiral molecular recognition and induction is presented that attributes enantioselection to electronic interactions. It assigns helicities to chiral molecules and has a chiral host or catalyst preferentially recognize or induce chirality of the same helicity. This principle of conservation of helical asymmetry agrees well with many experiments, accommodates results that conventional steric reasoning cannot, and promises predictive power. The work suggests that helical electronic effects may generally exert greater control than steric effects in enantioselection. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.