Stereochemical Changes interfaces

Figure 1. Schematic view of the stereochemical changes at the water-gel and vapor-gel interfaces (from ref. 7).

These differences reflect the conformations of (+)- and meso-isomers as they sit at the air-water interface. What is much harder to elucidate is the effect of stereochemistry on intermolecular interactions. How does changing the stereochemistry at one chiral center affect interactions between diastereomers Ab initio molecular orbital calculations have been used to address the problem of separating stereochemically dependent inter- and intra-molecular interactions in diastereomeric compounds (Craig et al., 1971). For example, diastereomeric compounds such as 2,3-dicyanobutane exhibit significant energetic dependence on intramolecular configuration about their chiral centers. So far, however, little experimental attention has been focused on this problem. 

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