Chirality in the solid state

Superior space filling in van-der-Waals crystals offers an approach to the synthesis of ordered binary crystals which may be explained with the help of the figure: In these pictographs opposite enantiomers are shown as left and right hands; the colours red and green are used to distinguish between different but structurally related molecules. According to Kitaigorodsky's packing arguments inversion centers and glide planes represent favourable symmetry elements. In agreement with this experience heterochiral crystals are often associated with better space filling than homochiral solids, and when racemates of chiral compounds are crystallized racemic crystals (b) are expected to occur more frequently than conglomerates (a). For more than a century opposite chirality has been known as a driving force for the formation of compounds. Fredga has studied quasi-racemates (d) with the aim of assigning absolute configurations to enantiomerically pure compounds of unknown chirality. In this contribution we will discuss the role of chirality in the formation of well-ordered binary solids (d) and solid solutions (f).

Ordered binary crystals via cocrystallisation of quasiracemic Pd(II) complexes in a borderline regime between inertness and lability.
B. Calmuschi, M. Alesi und U. Englert; Dalton Trans. 2004,1852-1857.

Cobalt complexes derived from chiral quasi-racemic ligands as building blocks for binary crystals
S. Reemers und U. Englert; Inorg. Chem. Commun 2002, 5, 829-831

Chiral Cr(III) and Co(III) complex cations as building blocks for ordered and disordered salts
I. Kalf, B. Calmuschi and U. Englert; CrystEngComm 2002, 4, 548-551

Chirality and Order in Binary Molecular Crystals of Inert Cobalt(III) Complexes Chirality and Order in Binary Molecular Crystals of Inert Cobalt(III) Complexes
U. Englert, A. Häring, C. Hu, I. Kalf; Z. Anorg. Allg. Chemie2002, 628,1173-1179


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Ulli(1996-10-01, 2005-01-08)