Turinese Stereochemistry: Eligio Perucca's Enantioselectivity and Primo Levi's Asymmetry

摘要

In 1919, Eligio Perucca (Figure 1) reported anomalous optical rotatory dispersion (ORD) from chiral NaClO3 crystals that were colored from having been grown from a solution containing an equilibrium racemic mixture of a triarylmethane dye, extra China blue. In recent decades, this publication has never been cited, except in our review on the dyeing of crystals. Perucca's chiroptical observations are consistent with a resolution of the propeller-shaped dye molecules by NaClO3 crystals.