title: Dendritic crystal growth, differential circular scattering, and the origin of biomolecular homochirality.
abstract: Phthalic acid rapidly crystallizing in thin aqueous films is deposited radially and rhythmically as dendritic banded spherulites that have heterochiral meso-textures in hemi-circles. The chiral fields differentially scatter left and right circularly polarized light. A scenario for chiral amplification and the origin of biomolecular homochirality is thus proposed that combines the influences of crystals and light.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-1700, USA. kahr@chem.washington.edu
authors.forename: Bart
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kahr
authors.forename: John H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Freudenthal
mesh_terms: D003460:Crystallization; D008954:Models, Biological; D013237:Stereoisomerism