Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.121, No.12, 2657-2661, 1999
Detection of chiral disorder in langmuir monolayers undergoing spontaneous chiral segregation
Acid-base interactions between two different chiral amphiphilic molecules (p-pentadecylmandelic acid and p-tetradecylphenylethylamine) are used in order to achieve spontaneous chiral segregation from a racemic mixture at the air-water interface, as shown by grazing incidence X-ray diffraction. The extent of possible chiral disorder for both acid and base components is examined. We show that an oblique lattice symmetry is insufficient to guarantee spontaneous segregation of chiral molecules in two-dimensional crystals because of possible chiral disorder.