Definition
The term chirality, from the Greek word cheir for “hand,” refers to the property of “handedness” possessed by some molecules and macroscopic objects. A molecule or object is chiral if it is not superimposable on its mirror image, as is the case for left and right hands. The word was introduced by Lord Kelvin (1904) and has been further quantified by Mislow (1965) and Cahn et al. (1966), who define an object as chiral when it contains no element of symmetry (excepting in some cases an axis of rotation). The two distinct mirror-image forms are called enantiomers in the case of chiral molecules and enantiomorphs in the case of chiral crystals.
Overview
The two enantiomers of a chiral molecule have identical physical and chemical properties, which was demonstrated by van’t Hoff and Le Bel using arguments about the “exact mechanical symmetry” between enantiomers (van’t Hoff 1887). It has since been proven, however, that...
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References and Further Reading
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Blackmond, D. (2015). Chirality. In: Amils, R., et al. Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_283-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_283-3
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