Chiral and Achiral Crystal Structures

Abstract An extensive study and analysis of the concepts, classification, presentation, and nomenclature of chirality and lack of chirality in crystal structures and their constituents is presented. Oriented crystal structures are classified. The chirality rules for existence of molecular crystal structures are examined and the relation to segmentation and latent symmetry highlighted. The nomenclature of chirality and related terms, and the relationship of chirality to optical activity is covered. The uses and limitations of the Euclidean normalizer are treated. An improved glossary of terms is included.