Advances in Asymmetric Autocatalysis and Related Topics provides various viewpoints on the important developments in asymmetric autocatalysis that have occurred in the past few years, also including brand new information in the field.

Asymmetric autocatalysis is a chemical reaction which leads from achiral starting materials to chiral products, and in which the product accelerates its own formation reaction (conventional catalysis) and promotes the prevalence of its own chiral configuration (asymmetric induction). The combination of these two effects in the same reaction was unprecedented before 1995 when it was first described by Kenso SOAI at the Tokyo University of Science.

Since then, several new combinations of this effect have been found, most intriguingly the possibility of absolute asymmetric synthesis, which is the spontaneous formation of the excess of one of the enantiomers of the product, a dream of organic chemists for more than a century.

The book contains expert-contributed chapters that describe the most exciting recent developments in the field of the Soai reaction and in related topics, ranging from mechanistic studies and theoretical research, to very practical problems in chiral syntheses and products.

• Features contributions from global experts, including several chapters from Kenso Soai and expert colleagues
• Focuses on recent developments in the field of asymmetric autocatalysis and newly reported findings
• Explores the Soai reaction, new developments, and the light it sheds on homochirality in certain biomolecules

• Front Cover 2
• Advances in Asymmetric Autocatalysis and Related Topics 5
• Copyright Page 6
• Contents 7
• List of Contributors 13
• Preface 17
• 1 Asymmetric Autocatalysis and the Origins of Homochirality of Organic Compounds. An Overview 19
  • 1.1 Introduction 19
  • 1.2 Examination of the Origins of Homochirality by Using Asymmetric Autocatalysis with Amplification of Chirality 21
    • 1.2.1 Circularly Polarized Light 22
    • 1.2.2 Chiral Inorganic Crystals of Quartz, Sodium Chlorate, Cinnabar, and Retgersite 23
    • 1.2.3 Chiral Crystals Formed from Achiral Organic Compounds 25
    • 1.2.5 Chiral Crystal of DL-Serine Sulfate 31
    • 1.2.4 Asymmetric Autocatalysis on the Enantiotopic Face of an Achiral Organic Crystal of an Achiral Organic Compound 31
    • 1.2.6 Spontaneous Absolute Asymmetric Synthesis 32