Amplification of enantiomeric concentrations under credible prebiotic conditions.
Solutions with as little as 1% enantiomeric excess (ee) of D- or L-phenylalanine are amplified to 90% ee (a 95/5 ratio) by two successive evaporations to precipitate the racemate. Such a process on the prebiotic earth could lead to a mechanism by which meteoritic chiral alpha-alkyl amino acids could form solutions with high ee values that were needed for the beginning of biology.
Breslow
Ronald
R
Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA. rb33@columbia.edu
Levine
Mindy S
MS
D011232:Chemical Precipitation; D010649:Phenylalanine / Q000737:chemistry*; D012996:Solutions / Q000737:chemistry; D013237:Stereoisomerism
D012996:Solutions; D010649:Phenylalanine