Abstract

THOMAS, Buhse. Kinetic Aspects of Soai's Asymmetric Autocatalysis. J. Mex. Chem. Soc [online]. 2005, vol.49, n.4, pp.328-335. ISSN 1870-249X.

Recent kinetic studies are discussed that shed light on the reaction mechanism of the autocatalytic addition of diisopropylzinc to pyrimidine carbaldehydes (Soai reaction). Soai's reaction stands for the exclusive example of chirally autocatalytic reaction system in organic chemistry and has attracted close attention from several viewpoints: as possible account for the origin of biomolecular homochirality, as potential innovation in enantioselective synthesis or as a further remarkable manifestation of nonlinear dynamics in chemical systems. It is indicated that the reaction is driven by enantioselective autocatalysis and mutual inhibition as the essential components. A numerical approach reveals that experimentally observed chiral amplification and mirror-symmetry breaking can be readily reproduced by a comparatively simple kinetic model that considers monomers as the catalytic species.

Keywords : Soai reaction; asymmetric autocatalysis enantioselection.

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