Chiral catalysts 226 INDEX

It has recently been proposed that kink sites of high Miller index metal surfaces should be considered as chiral when the step lengths on either side of the kink are unequal [22], Two such surfaces, which are not superimposable, can be defined - by analogy with the Cahn-Ingold-Prelog rules - as, e. g., Ag(643) and Ag(643). Theoretical calculations predicted that adsorption of chiral molecules should be stereospecific on such surfaces, but the only experimental evidence yet available is the electro-oxidation of d- and L-glucose on Pt(643) and Pt(531) surfaces [23]. It was speculated that with the polycrystalline metal catalyst, which contains equal numbers of (/ )- and (S)-type kink sites, preferential adsorption of a chiral modifier on one type of kink site would leave the other type of site free for catalysis. 

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