Arango-Restrepo A, Barragán D, Rubi J M
Departament de Física de la Matèria Condensada, Universitat de Barcelona, Avinguda Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona, Spain.
Escuela de Química, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Carrera 65 No 59A-110, Bloque 16, Núcleo El Volador, 050034 Medellín, Colombia.
Phys Chem Chem Phys. 2023 Nov 1;25(42):29032-29041. doi: 10.1039/d3cp03220e.
We show that variations in enantiomer nuclei size and activation energy during the nucleation stage of crystallization are responsible for the chiral symmetry breaking resulting in excess of one of the possible enantiomers with respect to the other. By understanding the crystallisation process as a non-equilibrium self-assembly process, we quantify the enantiomeric excess through the probability distribution of the nuclei size and activation energy variations which are obtained from the free energy involved in the nucleation stage of crystallisation. We validate our theory by comparing it to Kondepudi previous experimental work on sodium chlorate crystallisation. The results demonstrate that the self-assembly of enantiomeric crystals provides an explanation for chiral symmetry breaking. These findings could have practical applications for improving the production of enantiopure drugs in the pharmaceutical industry, as well as for enhancing our understanding of the origins of life since enantiomeric amino acids and monosaccharides are the building blocks of life.
我们表明，结晶成核阶段对映体晶核尺寸和活化能的变化是导致手性对称性破缺的原因，从而使得一种可能的对映体相对于另一种过量。通过将结晶过程理解为非平衡自组装过程，我们通过晶核尺寸和活化能变化的概率分布来量化对映体过量，这些变化是从结晶成核阶段所涉及的自由能中获得的。我们将我们的理论与孔德普迪先前关于氯酸钠结晶的实验工作进行比较，以验证我们的理论。结果表明，对映体晶体的自组装为手性对称性破缺提供了解释。这些发现对于改善制药行业中对映体纯药物的生产可能具有实际应用价值，同时也有助于增进我们对生命起源的理解，因为对映体氨基酸和单糖是生命的组成部分。
