Just like our hands, certain organic molecules relate to each other like an image and its reflection -- a phenomenon that chemists call"chirality" or"handedness." The two mirror images of the same molecule, namely both enantiomers, often possess different biological properties. For example for drug discovery, many times only one of the structures is relevant. However, chemical synthesis methods often create a 1:1 mixture of both forms.
A team of researchers from the Institute of Organic Chemistry and from the Center for Multiscale Theory and Computation at the University of Münster led by Prof. Ryan Gilmour and Prof. Johannes Neugebauer developed a novel concept in which this conversion is enabled by light as an external energy source.
Achieving spatial control in light-mediated reactions is one of the main challenges in contemporary organic chemistry. To this end, usually two distinct catalysts are employed in one reaction: a photocatalyst, that initiates the reactivity, operates in concert with a second catalyst that controls the spatial arrangement of the molecules.