In: Chemistry
what is mirror symmetry breaking of Crystals?
Spontaneous mirror symmetry breaking is an efficient way to obtain homogeneously chiral agents, pharmaceutical ingredients and materials. It is also in the focus of the discussion around the emergence of uniform chirality in biological systems. Tremendous progress has been made by symmetry breaking during crystallisation from supercooled melts or supersaturates solutions and by self-assembly on solid surfaces and in other highly ordered structures. However, recent observations of spontaneous mirror symmetry breaking in liquids and liquid crystals indicate that it is not limited to the well-ordered solid state
If interaction between like enantiomers is preferred, then chirality discrimination leads to the segregation of the enantiomers into distinct domains . This local breaking of mirror symmetry by spontaneous resolution of racemic mixtures of permanently chiral molecules into a conglomerate of crystals with opposite handedness has been well-known since the groundbreaking work of Pasteur which marked the birth of stereochemistry .