In a recent study, researchers from Freie Universität Berlin, DESY research center in Hamburg, Kiel University and Kansas State University showed how light can turn (Light Can Be Used to Control Physical Emotions) a flat molecule into a chiral one-handed one., provides a solution to a long-term problem that is complete, asymmetric connection. This new method can be especially useful in the chemical synthesis of compounds.
This study, which was carried out as part of our Joint Research Center in 1319 “Extreme Light for Sensing and Driving Molecular Chirality (ELCH)”, was published at the beginning of December in a well-known international scientific journal.
“Molecules made up of four or more atoms are usually chiral, meaning that their atomic spacing is either left- or right-handed. Each chiral molecule consists of twin molecules from the glass world with a different property,” explains Professor Christiane Koch of the Department of Physics at the Freie Universität Berlin. The left and right forms of the molecule (also called enantiomers) are the same, except that they interact very differently with their environment and with each other depending on the environment.
It’s like when two hands enter the social world; if two right hands are extended, then two participants will shake hands, while if right and left hands come together, two participants will hold hands, which is a very different gesture.
Scientists are still discovering new information about how molecules organize themselves into left- or right-handed structures. “Organic molecules are usually homochiral, which means that in living cells, only one of the two elements can exist. Although they are exactly the same atom, the two images of the suspected molecule are different in many ways,” says Koch. For example, one enantiomer may smell like an orange, while the other smells like a lemon.
“Or worse, one enantiomer will be a cure for a disease, while the other will be a dangerous poison. Therefore, controlling the formation of one hand of chiral molecules is an important goal in chemical synthesis,” adds Koch. Often, chemists rely on chiral chemistry to control chirality. However, there is another thing that has not been done yet: complete asymmetric synthesis, which is the sign of chirality products using only light fields. It is difficult to know exactly how this will be achieved.
In their work, Denis Tikhonov, Alexander Blech, Monika Leibscher, Loren Greenman, Melanie Schnell and Christiane Koch developed a comprehensive asymmetric clustering system that can be tested experimentally. Starting from the gas phase of the planar COFCl molecule as a non-chiral reactant, the chiral carbon molecules are made chiral by vibrational motions excited by the molecular plane.
This preparation step is called redemption. As the molecule vibrates back and forth from the top to the bottom of the plane, the molecular dynamics change. This change can be measured by ionizing particles and changing the time delay between the pump and the probe step.
To be able to measure the sensitivity of the molecular assembly, the pump level must have three different electric currents that must be in harmony. Otherwise, particles in a given orientation will start in the left configuration while particles in another orientation will start from the right, leaving no clear signal.
The combination of the electric field discovered by the team makes it clear that all molecules, regardless of orientation, start in the same direction. In other technical terms, the required combination of electric power for the pump stage can be achieved by left and right polarized pulses, which combine the so-called Raman transition, with a vertical electric field. The analysis step involves ionizing particles. Measuring the direction of the resulting electrons makes it possible to reduce the output of the cells.
The authors argue that the proposed experiment is possible with existing settings, for example, using the cycle provided by FLASH and DESY.
