Strong coupling to circularly polarized photons: towards field-induced enantioselectivity

Abstract

The development of new methodologies for the selective synthesis of individual enantiomers is still one of the major challenges in synthetic chemistry. Many biomolecules, and therefore many pharmaceutical compounds, are indeed chiral. While the use of chiral reactants or catalysts has led to significant progress in the field of asymmetric synthesis, a systematic approach applicable to general reactions has still not been proposed. In this work, we show that strong coupling to circularly polarized fields represents a promising alternative for reaching highly selective asymmetric synthesis in a non-invasive fashion. We demonstrate that the field induces stereoselectivity in the early stages of the chemical reaction, by selecting an energetically preferred direction of approach for the reagents.