Attrition-induced spontaneous chiral amplification of the γ polymorphic modification of glycine

Arkadii V. Tarasevych (1) , Alexander E. Sorochinsky (2) , Valery P. Kukhar (2) , Loic Toupet (3) , Jeanne Crassous (1) , Jean-Claude Guillemin (1)

1 ISCR - Institut des Sciences Chimiques de Rennes
2 Institut of Bioorganic Chemistry and Petrochemistry of NASU
3 IPR - Institut de Physique de Rennes

Glycine is the simplest achiral amino acid that undergoes spontaneous mirror symmetry breaking when it crystallizes in its chiral γ-polymorphic modification. As a result of Ostwald ripening, its racemic mixture stochastically becomes optically active. The sense of the resulting handedness can be controlled by addition of one enantiomer of a simple chiral amino acid, the alanine.

Domains: Chemical Sciences; Organic chemistry

Arkadii V. Tarasevych, Alexander E. Sorochinsky, Valery P. Kukhar, Loic Toupet, Jeanne Crassous, et al.. Attrition-induced spontaneous chiral amplification of the γ polymorphic modification of glycine. CrystEngComm, 2015, 17 (7), pp.1513-1517. ⟨10.1039/C4CE02434F⟩. ⟨hal-01107558⟩