The Three Main Approaches to Accessing One Enantiomer Selectively (IMAGE)

Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

The Three Main Approaches to Accessing One Enantiomer Selectively

Caption

The three main approaches to accessing one enantiomer selectively: 1) Separate a mixture of the two enantiomers (resolution), wasting one of the enantiomers. 2) Synthesize selectively only one of the two enantiomers. 3) Use a "desymmetrization" of a non-chiral compound similar to the target. This is used less often, but it is particularly elegant as it can reveal chirality from an already relatively complex precursor by breaking the symmetry in only one simple transformation.

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J. Waser/EPFL

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