Introduction and Characteristics

Axial chirality is another stereochemical behavior frequently observed in three-dimensional molecules. A chiral axis is defined when the spatial arrangement of substituents about this linkage has rendered the molecule to be nonsuperimposable on its mirror image. This section describes the chirality concept in general and notes the distinction between each form of chirality. The growing appreciations of axial chirality in chemical synthesis, asymmetric catalysis, natural products, biologically relevant compounds, and functional materials are then illuminated. Tactics to assign configuration for various subclasses of axially chiral molecules have also been explicated in accordance with Cahn–Ingold–Prelog priority rules.