Chiral symmetry breaking. I. Cooperative effects in solutions

A mechanism that may lead to asymmetry between the concentrations of levo a nd dextro enantiomers is suggested. Under certain conditions, chiral symmet ry breaking is possible due to the cooperative effect in solution when the chiral configuration of a molecule is affected by the chirality of others. This effect may lead to a kind of "phase transition" of the system to the s tate where a presence of only one type of enantiomers, either levo or dextr o, is energetically advantageous. Cooperativity results from an increase of the effective radius of the intermolecular interaction due to mobility of molecules in the liquid and gas phases. The kinetics of the reactions, as w ell as possible ways to the synthesis of the compounds with desirable chira lity, are considered. An experiment on chiral symmetry breaking in sodium c hlorate crystallization, an example of chiral symmetry breaking in a macro system, is discussed. (c) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(9 9)51222-1].