Molecular study of heterochiral preference in biomimetic monolayers

摘要

Heterochiral discrimination in Langmuir monolayers of amphiphilic. 1-stearylamine-glycerol is studied theoretically using coarse-grained molecular model. The present study reveals different effective interactions for enantiomeric and racemic pairs of the 1-stearylamine-glycerol amphiphile. The study conclusively shows that the chiral structure of the molecule and the lattice packing drive the chiral preference at the mesoscopic level. Besides justifying the experimentally observed handedness of the filigree-shaped domains, the theoretical results explain the experimentally observed heterochiral discrimination.