Chapter 8 - Synthesis of Pyrimidine-Terminated Chiral Large Molecular Architectures with Functions of Self-Replication and Self-Improvement by Asymmetric Autocatalysis

Abstract

The synthesis of huge chiral molecular architectures with functions of self-replication and self-improvement is one of the great topics of research in synthetic, systems and prebiotic chemistry. Here we describe a new chemical system in which large chiral multifunctionalized molecules achieve asymmetric autocatalytic multiplication and amplification of their enantiomeric and diastereomeric purities. The large chiral multifunctionalized molecules, that is, hexakis(5-pyrimidyl alkanol)hexaalkylsilane, replicatively catalyze the production of themselves with the same structure, including information on the chirality at newly formed asymmetric carbon atoms, in the reaction of corresponding achiral aldehydes and reagents. The chirality of the large molecules efficiently controlled the enantioselectivity of the reaction to construct multiasymmetric stereogenic centers in a single reaction step.