Nitrogen chiral

Nitrogen chirality may also be produced by the action of an achiral peroxyacid on a Schiff base containing a chiral amine (75JOC3878). In this case the oxaziridine contains a configurationally known centre of chirality relative to this, absolute configurations of the centres of chirality at nitrogen and carbon, and thus the complete absolute configuration of the molecule, can be determined (see Section 5.08.2.2). 

The most common cause of chirality is the presence of four different substituents bonded to a tetrahedral atom, but that atom doesn t necessarily have to be carbon. Nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur are all commonly encountered in organic molecules, and all can be chirality centers. We know, for instance, that trivalent nitrogen is tetrahedral, with its lone pair of electrons acting as the fourth "substituent" (Section 1.10). Is trivalent nitrogen chiral Does a compound such as ethylmethylamine exist as a pair of enantiomers ... 

Further reactions of allyl organometallics with a-alkoxyaldimines 1, prepared from (S)-2-(methoxymcthoxy)propionaldehyde and (R)- and (S)-l-phenylethylamine, illuminate the difference in the influence of the nitrogen chiral auxiliary and the x-alkoxy center7. 

A carbon atom to which four different groups are attached is a chirdl center. (Sometimes it is called chiral carbon, when it is necessary to distinguish it from chiral nitrogen, chiral phosphorus, etc.)... 

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