Conservation of helicity and helical character matching in chiral interactions.

An electronic theory for molecular chirality and chiral interactions has recently been published that suggests that underlying chiral interactions is the conservation of molecular electronic helicity and that enantioselectivity in a reaction can be maximized when the interacting chiral components are helically matched. Herein are presented proofs for these principles, and their connections with other theories and implications for the design of chiral catalysts are discussed. 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.