Single catalyst gives two products from racemic mixture

Chemists in the US have demonstrated a remarkable reaction in which a single catalyst can transform a racemic mixture - molecules identical in every way except for their chirality - into two distinct enantiomerically pure products. The finding is significant because it describes a new catalytic system to steer reactions towards producing specific 'enantiopure' products - something that is crucial in many organic syntheses where chirality of reactants and products is vital.

Bin Wu, Jon R. Parquette and TV RajanBabu of Ohio State University took a racemic mixture of aziridines, which contain a strained three-membered ring, and reacted it with an azide in the presence of a catalyst based on two yttrium centres held within an organic framework.  More...

http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2009/December/17120903.asp