Catalyst–substrate helical character matching determines enantiomeric excess

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In the framework of a helix theory recently developed for molecular chiralities and chiral interactions, it is further proposed that for an asymmetric reaction to be highly enantioselective, the helical characters, that is, the local energies of electrons on the helices, of the catalyst and the substrate complexed with it in the corresponding enantioselection-determining step must be matched. These helical characters can be analyzed on the basis of molecular polarizability and structure properties under a given reaction mechanism. This proposal highlights the importance of polarizability matching in three-dimension chiral space and in essence is a chiral version of the classical hard and soft acid–base theory. It also from an electronic effect angle sheds light on the nature of the conventional lock-and-key origin of high enantioselection and carries the message that, to design a good catalyst (the key), rather than focusing on the rigidity, bulkiness or C 2-symmetry of the catalyst, one should focus more on the helical character of the substrate (the lock) with which the catalyst will interact. It is generally easier to discover a highly enantioselective catalyst for a substrate of a large helical character than for a substrate of a small helical character. The proposal is supported by theoretical modeling as well as numerous experiments and is used to understanding various aspects of current asymmetric catalysis.