Asymmetric synthesis and catalysis have been actively pursued in chemical and materials sciences for some time. Increasing numbers of drugs and pesticides contain chiral structural units in their structures since drug actions require conformational matching to increase their potency and selectivity toward receptors and other active targets inside and on the surfaces of cells.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Curve description of er enhancement in aggregation-induced catalysis from AD-mix-β. Credit: Research (2023). DOI: 10.34133/research.0163 Structural design of pharmaceuticals plays a key role in reducing or avoiding severe side effects during their action processes. In the meanwhile, more advanced materials, especially nano and photoelectronic materials contain micro-and macro-chiral units requiring various levels of asymmetric factors. Therefore, the control of chirality will continue to play a crucial role in the aforementioned fields. There have been four methods to control chirality including the use of chiral auxiliaries, reagents, solvents, and catalysts documented in literature and textbooks. Among them, asymmetric catalysts are normally divided into homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis. The Texas Tech University/Nanjing University Li Guigen team reports a new method for controlling chirality—asymmetric synthesis (AIAS) and asymmetric catalysis (AIAC) using chiral aggregates. This method is different from the five reported asymmetric synthesis methods: chiral auxiliary, chiral reagents, chiral solvents and chiral catalysts. These five methods are basically based on the reaction behavior of individual molecules in the reaction solution. The aggregation-induced asymmetric catalysis (AIAC) method is different from traditional homogeneous catalysis (single molecular behavior) and heterogeneous catalysis. It is a new type of asymmetric catalysis in between. AIAS is through the aggregation of chiral auxiliary raw materials, AIAC is through the…