Studies in chiral symmetry breaking crystallization I: The effects of stirring and evaporation rates

Chiral symmetry breaking can be realized in stirred crystallization of Na-ClO3. We present experimental and theoretical studies of the random distribution of crystal enantiomeric excess (cee) for various stirring and solvent evaporation rates. For a fixed solvent evaporation rate, as the stirring RPM is increased, the probability distribution of cee initially broadens and subsequently develops a sharp peak close to cee = 1. On further increase of stirring rate, the probability distribution once again broadens. This broad probability distribution becomes narrow, with a sharp peak near cee = 1, if the solvent evaporation rate is decreased. Thus we show some ways in which the probability distribution of cee can be controlled in stirred crystallization. In particular, our study shows that the stirring rate and the solvent evaporation rate can be adjusted to maximize crystal enantiomeric excess. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.