Systems Chemistry:Kinetic and Computational Analysis of a Nearly Exponential Organic Replicator

摘要

In 1997,Wang and Sutherland reported a case of self-replication in a Diels-Alder reaction.'11 This system is remarkable for at least two reasons:it constituted the first example of nearly exponential growth and it had the potential to exhibit two kinds of self-replication,homochiral autoca-talysis and heterochiral cross-catalysis,because a chiral diene was employed.Unfortunately,the authors could not complete a stereochemical analysis of their system.We report herein mechanistic and stereochemical studies of variants of the Wang-Sutherland replicator.We show that only one of four potential diastereomers is formed within our detection limits and that this diastereomer is involved in both autocatalytic and cross-catalytic channels.