title: Self-organization of lactates in the gas phase.
abstract: Chiral recognition and subsequent selective self-organisation into hydrogen-bonded n-mers is observed in supersonic methyl lactate expansions. The nu(OH) and nu(C=O)-vibrations are investigated by ragout-jet FTIR-spectroscopy and lead to the assignment of homo- and heterochiral clusters of at least three different cluster sizes. Whereas homo- and heterochiral dimers are formed in similar amounts in the racemic mixture, prominent absorptions due to different homochiral and heterochiral lactate trimers and tetramers indicate highly specific chiral self-recognition beyond molecular pairs. Chemical modification of the ester-group (methyl-, ethyl- and isopropyl-lactate) and argon admixture to the helium expansion contribute importantly to an understanding of the cluster spectra and topology.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Physikalische Chemie, Universität Göttingen, Tammannstr. 6, D-37077, Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Borho
authors.forename: Martin A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Suhm
mesh_terms: D001128:Argon / Q000737:chemistry; D005740:Gases / Q000737:chemistry*; D007773:Lactates / Q000737:chemistry; D019344:Lactic Acid / Q000737:chemistry*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D013237:Stereoisomerism
chemical_list: D005740:Gases; D007773:Lactates; C028444:methyl lactate; D019344:Lactic Acid; D001128:Argon; C015866:ethyl lactate