Asymmetric Synthesis and its Application

Dear Colleagues,

The importance of asymmetry for our existence is increasingly valued across numerous industries. From medicines to materials, the capability to create a pure chiral substrate is powerful—and remains non-trivial, even though life itself performs asymmetric synthesis on a regular basis. We require additional synthetic tools (such as organocatalysts, chiral ligands, chiral auxiliaries, and enzymes) and analytical tools (such as X-ray crystallography, chiral HPLC, chiral NMR solvents) to generate and characterize asymmetry. In addition to differences in bioavailability across living systems, the increased order that chirality can provide to nanomaterials and polymers is significant.

As our appreciation for and use of chiral materials and medicines increases, we require evermore reliable and rapid means to synthesize and characterize asymmetric molecules. We also require better means to predict how to generate chirality, and how to optimize asymmetric synthetic outcomes. Although there currently exist many ways to generate asymmetric molecules, they are often system-specific—there exists no one grand way to make any chiral molecule.

This Special Issue, focused on asymmetric synthesis and its application, will highlight emerging approaches for generating chirality. I hope to solicit contributions from a diverse range of researchers, inclusive of both batch and flow-based reaction paradigms, and also inclusive of computational approaches that have been applied experimentally to generate enantioselectivity. Biocatalysis and organocatalysis will be considered, and innovative characterization methodologies for evaluating enantiomeric excess beyond the traditional chiral HPLC will also be considered. All contributions should keep industrial relevance and application in mind.

Please note that all submitted papers must be within the general scope of the Symmetry journal.

Prof. Dr. Amanda Evans
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Symmetry is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.