Chiral compound

An example of a chiral compound is lactic acid. Two different forms of lactic acid that are mirror images of each other can be defined (Figure 2-69). These two different molecules are called enantiomers. They can be separated, isolated, and characterized experimentally. They are different chemical entities, and some of their properties arc different (c.g., their optical rotation),... 

The Cahn-Ingold-Prelog (CIP) rules stand as the official way to specify chirahty of molecular structures [35, 36] (see also Section 2.8), but can we measure the chirality of a chiral molecule. Can one say that one structure is more chiral than another. These questions are associated in a chemist s mind with some of the experimentally observed properties of chiral compounds. For example, the racemic mixture of one pail of specific enantiomers may be more clearly separated in a given chiral chromatographic system than the racemic mixture of another compound. Or, the difference in pharmacological properties for a particular pair of enantiomers may be greater than for another pair. Or, one chiral compound may rotate the plane of polarized light more than another. Several theoretical quantitative measures of chirality have been developed and have been reviewed elsewhere [37-40]. 

Twenty-eight chiral compounds were separated from their enantiomers by HPLC on a teicoplanin chiral stationary phase. Figure 8-12 shows some of the structures contained in the data set. This is a very complex stationary phase and modeling of the possible interactions with the analytes is impracticable. In such a situation, learning from known examples seemed more appropriate, and the chirality code looked quite appealing for representing such data. 

The usual physical properties such as density melting point and boiling point are iden tical for both enantiomers of a chiral compound... 

Chirality and Optical Activity. A compound is chiral (the term dissymmetric was formerly used) if it is not superimposable on its mirror image. A chiral compound does not have a plane of symmetry. Each chiral compound possesses one (or more) of three types of chiral element, namely, a chiral center, a chiral axis, or a chiral plane. 

Optically Inactive Chiral Compounds. Although chirality is a necessary prerequisite for optical activity, chiral compounds are not necessarily optically active. With an equal mixture of two enantiomers, no net optical rotation is observed. Such a mixture of enantiomers is said to be racemic and is designated as ( ) and not as dl. Racemic mixtures usually have melting points higher than the melting point of either pure enantiomer. 

A second type of optically inactive chiral compounds, meso compounds, will be discussed in the next section. 

When the asymmetric carbon atoms in a chiral compound are part of a ring, the isomerism is more complex than in acyclic compounds. A cyclic compound which has two different asymmetric carbons with different sets of substituent groups attached has a total of 2 = 4 optical isomers an enantiometric pair of cis isomers and an enantiometric pair of trans isomers. However, when the two asymmetric centers have the same set of substituent groups attached, the cis isomer is a meso compound and only the trans isomer is chiral. (See Fig. 1.15.)... 

Chiral separations are concerned with separating molecules that can exist as nonsupetimposable mirror images. Examples of these types of molecules, called enantiomers or optical isomers are illustrated in Figure 1. Although chirahty is often associated with compounds containing a tetrahedral carbon with four different substituents, other atoms, such as phosphoms or sulfur, may also be chiral. In addition, molecules containing a center of asymmetry, such as hexahehcene, tetrasubstituted adamantanes, and substituted aHenes or molecules with hindered rotation, such as some 2,2 disubstituted binaphthyls, may also be chiral. Compounds exhibiting a center of asymmetry are called atropisomers. An extensive review of stereochemistry may be found under Pharmaceuticals, Chiral. 

Analytically, the inclusion phenomenon has been used in chromatography both for the separation of ions and molecules, in Hquid and gas phase (1,79,170,171). Peralkylated cyclodextrins enjoy high popularity as the active component of hplc and gc stationary phases efficient in the optical separation of chiral compounds (57,172). Chromatographic isotope separations have also been shown to occur with the help of Werner clathrates and crown complexes (79,173). 

Chiral Smectic. In much the same way as a chiral compound forms the chiral nematic phase instead of the nematic phase, a compound with a chiral center forms a chiral smectic C phase rather than a smectic C phase. In a chiral smectic CHquid crystal, the angle the director is tilted away from the normal to the layers is constant, but the direction of the tilt rotates around the layer normal in going from one layer to the next. This is shown in Figure 10. The distance over which the director rotates completely around the layer normal is called the pitch, and can be as small as 250 nm and as large as desired. If the molecule contains a permanent dipole moment transverse to the long molecular axis, then the chiral smectic phase is ferroelectric. Therefore a device utilizing this phase can be intrinsically bistable, paving the way for important appHcations. 

Tbe purpose of tbe bydroxyl group is to acbieve some hydrogen bonding with the nearby carbonyl group and therefore hinder the motion of the chiral center. Another way to achieve the chiral smectic Cphase is to add a chiral dopant to a smectic Chquid crystal. In order to achieve a material with fast switching times, a chiral compound with high spontaneous polarization is sometimes added to a mixture of low viscosity achiral smectic C compounds. These dopants sometimes possess Hquid crystal phases in pure form and sometimes do not. 

Use ofMethanesulfonyl Chloride (MSC) in the Synthesis of Chiral Compounds, Technical Bulletin A-70-11, Elf Atochem North America, Philadelphia, Pa., 1992. 

The remarkable stereospecificity of TBHP-transition metal epoxidations of allylic alcohols has been exploited by Sharpless group for the synthesis of chiral oxiranes from prochiral allylic alcohols (Scheme 76) (81JA464) and for diastereoselective oxirane synthesis from chiral allylic alcohols (Scheme 77) (81JA6237). It has been suggested that this latter reaction may enable the preparation of chiral compounds of complete enantiomeric purity cf. Scheme 78) ... 

The presence of asymmetric C atoms in a molecule may, of course, be indicated by diastereotopic shifts and absolute configurations may, as already shown, be determined empirically by comparison of diastereotopic shifts However, enantiomers are not differentiated in the NMR spectrum. The spectrum gives no indication as to whether a chiral compound exists in a racemic form or as a pure enantiomer. 

It is possible to obtain pure enantiomers of chiral compounds. One property of separated enantiomers is to cause the rotation of the plane of polarized light by opposite... 

Scheme 2.1. Chiral Compounds with Stereogenlc Centers at Sulfur and Phosphorus...

Wood, W.M.L., 1997. Crystal science techniques in the manufacture of chiral compounds. Cli. 7 in Chirality in Industry II. Eds. N.A. Collins, G.N. Sheldrake and Crosby. New York J. Wiley Sons. 

For developing osmium-catalyzed oxidation methods for preparing chiral compounds of high optical purity, Professor K. Barry Sharpless (Scripps Research Institute) shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in chemistry. 

The main strategy for catalytic enantioselective cycloaddition reactions of carbonyl compounds is the use of a chiral Lewis acid catalyst. This approach is probably the most efficient and economic way to effect an enantioselective reaction, because it allows the direct formation of chiral compounds from achiral substrates under mild conditions and requires a sub-stoichiometric amount of chiral material. 

A large amount of fuel and environmentally based analysis is focused on the determination of aliphatic and aromatic content. These types of species are often notoriously difficult to deconvolute by mass spectrometric means, and resolution at the isomeric level is almost only possible by using chromatographic methods. Similarly, the areas of organohalogen and flavours/fragrance analysis are dominated by a need to often quantify chiral compounds, which in the same way as aliphatic... 

D. Jukelka, A. Steil, K. Witt and A. Mosandl, Chiral compounds of essential oils. XX. Cliirality evaluation and authenticity profiles of neroli and petitgrain oils , ]. Essential Oil Res. 8 487-497 (1996). 

HPLC separations are one of the most important fields in the preparative resolution of enantiomers. The instrumentation improvements and the increasing choice of commercially available chiral stationary phases (CSPs) are some of the main reasons for the present significance of chromatographic resolutions at large-scale by HPLC. Proof of this interest can be seen in several reviews, and many chapters have in the past few years dealt with preparative applications of HPLC in the resolution of chiral compounds [19-23]. However, liquid chromatography has the attribute of being a batch technique and therefore is not totally convenient for production-scale, where continuous techniques are preferred by far. 

V. M. L. Wood, Crystal science techniques in the manufacture of chiral compounds in Chirality and Industry II. Developments in the Manufacture and applications of optically active compounds, A. N. Collins, G. N. Sheldrake, J. Crosby (Eds.), John Wiley Sons, New York (1997) Chapter 7. 

The majority of the original chiral selectors for brush-type CSPs were derived from natural chiral compounds. Selectors prepared from amino acids, such as phenyl... 

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