Chiral Arrangement of Active Sites on the Catalytic Surface

Create a Chiral Arrangement of Active Sites on the Catalytic Surface 

An excellent enantioselective heterogeneous metal catalyst should be one in which the active metal sites are set in a chiral arrangement fulfilling the Ogston principles. Assuming no surface atom rearrangement, such a catalyst should furnish high enantioselectivities. 

Such a possibility has been recognized by early workers,9 but in spite of this intriguing possibility, only recently has such a metal surface been created. Chiral kink sites were created on Ag single crystal surfaces to produce the enantiomeric surfaces Ag(643)s and Ag(643)R however, no differences between (R)- and (S)-2-butanol were observed for either the temperature-programmed desorption from the clean surfaces or the dehydrogenation (to 2-butanone) from preoxidized surfaces.10 Unfortunately, Ag exhibits few catalytic properties, so only a limited array of test reactions is available to probe enantioselectivity over this metal. It would be good if this technique were applied to a more catalytically active metal such as Pt. 

---