Advances in Molecular Symmetry and Chirality Research

Dear Colleagues,

In nature, chirality is widely found in fields such as chemistry, biology, and physics. In the field of chemistry, chirality research focuses on the chiral properties of molecules. Many organic molecules are chiral, which means that they exist in two mirror structures, namely, left-handed and right-handed. These mirror structures are called enantiomers, and they cannot be superimposed on each other by rotation or translation. Since the mirror structures of chiral molecules may have different properties in biological activity and chemical reactions, chirality research has important application value in fields such as drug development, food science, and environmental science. Molecular symmetry is a fundamental concept in chemistry, as it can be used to predict or explain many of a molecule's chemical properties, such as whether or not it has a dipole moment, as well as its allowed spectroscopic transitions. This involves classifying the states of the molecule using the irreducible representations from the character table of the symmetry group of the molecule. Symmetry is useful in the study of molecular orbitals, with applications in the Hückel method, the ligand field theory, and the Woodward–Hoffmann rules.

Prof. Dr. Ralph N. Salvatore
Dr. Guzman Gil-Ramirez
Topic Editors