Communications Chemistry (Jun 2021)

Chiroptical activity of hydroxycarboxylic acids with implications for the origin of biological homochirality

  • Jana Bocková,
  • Nykola C. Jones,
  • Uwe J. Meierhenrich,
  • Søren V. Hoffmann,
  • Cornelia Meinert

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s42004-021-00524-z
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 4, no. 1
pp. 1 – 9

Abstract

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Enantiomerically-enriched hydroxycarboxylic acids have been found in meteorites, but the possible origin of this asymmetry has not been explored experimentally. Here circular dichroism/anisotropy experiments suggest a common astrochemical mechanism for the generation of enantiomeric excess in hydroxycarboxylic acids and amino acids.