Anisotropy-Guided Enantiomeric Enhancement in Alanine Using Far-UV Circularly Polarized Light

Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere : the Journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life
Cornelia MeinertU J Meierhenrich

Abstract

All life on Earth is characterized by its asymmetry - both the genetic material and proteins are composed of homochiral monomers. Understanding how this molecular asymmetry initially arose is a key question related to the origins of life. Cometary ice simulations, L-enantiomeric enriched amino acids in meteorites and the detection of circularly polarized electromagnetic radiation in star-forming regions point to a possible interstellar/protostellar generation of stereochemical asymmetry. Based upon our recently recorded anisotropy spectra g(λ) of amino acids in the vacuum-UV range, we subjected amorphous films of racemic (13)C-alanine to far-UV circularly polarized synchrotron radiation to probe the asymmetric photon-molecule interaction under interstellar conditions. Optical purities of up to 4% were reached, which correlate with our theoretical predictions. Importantly, we show that chiral symmetry breaking using circularly polarized light is dependent on both the helicity and the wavelength of incident light. In order to predict such stereocontrol, time-dependent density functional theory was used to calculate anisotropy spectra. The calculated anisotropy spectra show good agreement with the experimental ones. The European S...Continue Reading

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Citations

Oct 26, 2016·The Journal of Physical Chemistry. a·Matthias Wohlgemuth, Roland Mitrić
May 26, 2018·Chemistry : a European Journal·Dennis GerbigPeter R Schreiner
Aug 14, 2020·The Journal of Physical Chemistry. a·Jie SuPatrick Cassam-Chenaï

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