Developing Chiral Products: New Progression in Separation, Synthesis, and Application
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Physical Chemistry and Chemical Physics".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 February 2026 | Viewed by 1736
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
It is well known that chirality, the most important form of molecular asymmetry, is universal and that chirality on the molecular level plays an essential role in biological systems. Amino acids (except for glycine), proteins, sugars, and enzymes are all chiral compounds; depending on the number of stereogenic centers, they may possess numerous stereoisomers. The enantiomers (the “mirror-image” compounds) can only be differentiated in a chiral environment, where they may behave differently. Thus, it is understandable that if a mixture of enantiomers enters a living organism, there might be a difference in their utilization, distribution, and metabolism, thus affecting the type and scale of the biological effect. It is important to realize that apart from pharmaceutical drugs, chiral products can be found in vast quantities of food additives, agricultural chemicals, or fragrance materials of perfumes. Furthermore, chirality plays a central role in the development of new-generation agrochemicals with improved selectivity and reduced environmental impact, in the design of functional materials for catalysis and molecular recognition, and in the creation of advanced optoelectronic and nanomaterials with specific stereochemical properties. Chiral recognition is also indispensable in biotechnology and biomedical diagnostics, where stereoselective interactions form the basis of biosensing, drug delivery, and therapeutic targeting. Therefore, the synthesis of chiral compounds, together with the systematic investigation of their diverse physicochemical properties, as well as the development of efficient enantioselective separation techniques and advanced analytical methods, remains of paramount importance for both fundamental research and practical applications across multiple scientific and industrial fields.
This Special Issue explores advances in chiral separation materials and selectors, and their applications in the synthesis, analysis, and utilization of chiral compounds across diverse fields. Both original research papers and reviews in these fields are welcome.
Prof. Dr. István Ilisz
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- chirality
- enantioselective separations
- chiral selector molecules
- chiral stationary phases
- chiral sensors
- enantiorecognition
- chiral separation mechanisms
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