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2008, 112, 18299–18302 Published on Web 10/31/2008
Highly Efficient Electron Beam Induced Enantioselective Surface Chemistry C. Fleming, M. King, and M. Kadodwala* Department of Chemistry, Joseph Black Building, UniVersity of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QQ United Kingdom ReceiVed: September 25, 2008; ReVised Manuscript ReceiVed: October 23, 2008 Enantioselectivity in a chemical reaction arises when a system is placed under a chiral influence. One of the first “chiral influences” to be used to induce asymmetry in a chemical reaction was circularly polarized light (CPL). An enantiomer of a chiral molecule will preferentially absorb one helicity of circularly polarized light (CPL). In pioneering work in the 1930s, Kuhn used this phenomenon to generate an enantiomeric excess (ee) from an initially racemic mixture by enantioselective photodecomposition.1 Unfortunately the circular dichroism (CD) in the absorption cross-section is very small, with asymmetry factors (g) , 10-3, consequently enantioselective photodecomposition is very inefficient, with ee of typically
