Chiral Symmetry Breaking in Chiral Crystallization and Soai Autocatalytic Reaction

Complete chiral crystallization and absolute chiral synthesis are both fascinating phenomena shedding light on the possible origins of homochirality in nature and opening perspectives for efficient preparations of optically pure materials. Originally these two phenomena have been considered mechanistically quite different belonging to the hetero- and homogeneous systems, respectively. However, the results of the active research in both fields undertaken in the last few years suggest that there may be a much closer likeness of the most important mechanistic features of these two phenomena. In the present review, we bring together the latest data on the complete chiral crystallization and absolute chiral synthesis including our own data on the mechanism and spontaneous break of chirality in the Soai asymmetric autocatalysis.