ALANINE CHIRAL DISCRIMINATION BY INTERACTION WITH AMORPHOUS CELLULOSE

Amorphous cellulose formed by a helicoidal arrangement of glucose rings is superchiral: the monomeric basis and the helix conformation are both chiral. The interaction between the two enantiomers of an alanine zwitterion and a cellulose helix pitch is calculated and the energy discrimination is obtained to be about 1% of the total interaction energy. It is shown that chirality is essentially local and that the helix conformation of amorphous cellulose has no direct influence on the chiral discrimination. It has rather indirect local influence by forcing the monomer basis to be twisted by the helicoidal conformation and modifying thus the adsorption sites. © 1990.