Asymmetric Vacuum UV photolysis of the Amino Acid Leucine in the Solid State

Abstract

One hand clapping: Based on solid-state circular dichroism data, the leucine (π*, π1)-electronic transition is excited with right circularly polarized synchrotron radiation (r-CPSR) at 182 nm (see scheme). This treatment induced an enantiomeric excess of 2.6 % of D-leucine. The results support the assumption that interstellar asymmetric photoreactions are capable of inducing significant enantiomeric enrichments in solid-state amino acids.