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Optical activity from racemates

Nature Materials volume 15, pages 591–592 (2016)Cite this article

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To the Editor —

The relationship between chirality and optical activity is an important consideration for various fields of chemical, physical and biological research. For example, the determination of optical activity is a routine test of enantiomeric purity in organic synthesis. Chiral materials (or other non-centrosymmetric (NCS) materials) are also commonly used in optics and photonics to control the polarization of light. In the solid state, optical activity is intrinsic to the crystal structure. Although it is well established that optically active materials can form from any unit that is appropriately arranged — irrespective of the molecular chemistry of that unit — here we highlight that racemic pairs also fit into this category and can therefore be used to make optically active solids. This presents an important qualification to the widely held assumption that racemates are optically inactive.

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Figure 1: Representation of the arrangements of A and B units in CsCl-type packing.
Figure 2: Racemic compounds and optical activity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut des Matériaux Jean Rouxel, IMN, 2 rue de la Houssinière, Nantes, 44300, France

    Romain Gautier

  2. Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, 60208-3113, Illinois, USA

    Romain Gautier, Jordan M. Klingsporn, Richard P. Van Duyne & Kenneth R. Poeppelmeier

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  1. Romain Gautier
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Correspondence to Romain Gautier or Kenneth R. Poeppelmeier.

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Gautier, R., Klingsporn, J., Van Duyne, R. et al. Optical activity from racemates. Nature Mater 15, 591–592 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4628

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