Filter Makes Light Work of Chiral Separations

摘要

AN OPTICAL filter to sort lab-made chiral molecules could lead to purer and safer drugs and agrichemicals, believe researchers at Stanford University, Stanford, Calif. In addition, the method being developed could serve other uses, such as monitoring the folding or unfolding of a protein or enabling light-mediated synthesis of chiral chemicals, they say. "Approximately 50% of drugs and 30% of agrichemicals are chiral, which means they can be left-or right-handed. Of those, more than 90% are sold as mixtures of both-handed molecules because it's so hard to separate them," explains Jennifer Dionne, associate professor of materials science and engineering, who led the research. Such enantiomers can be hard to tell apart and can have vastly different effects. Separating them can be expensive, time-intensive and inefficient.