Elucidating the Role of Isotopically Chiral Initiators in the Soai Asymmetric Autocatalytic Reaction

A mechanistic rationalization is given for how asymmetric amplification is induced with fidelity in the Soai autocatalytic reaction by chiral initiators that are enantiomeric only by virtue of an isotope, e.g. – CH3 vs.CD3. A transient inhibition of the autocatalytic pathway at the outset of the reaction implicates an interaction between initiator and product initially formed in the uncatalyzed background reaction. Selectivity in formation of the product-initiator complex ultimately induces a slight enantioenrichment in the active dimer catalysts that trigger and direct the autocatalytic pathway.