Cavity Effects on the Enantioselectivity of Chiral Amido[4]resorcinarene Stereoisomers

Enzyme catalysis plays a crucial role in all biochemical processes. Natural and artificial enzymes normally exhibit a high enantioselectivity toward chiral molecules as a consequence of shape-specific noncovalent attractive and repulsive intermolecular interactions. An important step toward the elucidation of enzyme mechanisms requires a comprehensive kinetic study using simplified models under conditions, such as the gas phase, where the molecule/receptor interactions are not perturbed by medium effects. In this study we report a comparative gas-phase study along these lines.