Water-Mediated Chiral Resolution of Ag–NHC(Nucleobase) Complexes

Abstract

This study reveals a novel role of water as a chiral inducer, demonstrating its ability to drive the asymmetric resolution of prochiral silver-nucleobase complexes. During crystallization, helical water columns spontaneously form, selectively recognizing one enantiomer of the silver complex. This enantiospecific interaction drives the separation of the P and M enantiomers, leading to the formation of enantiopure crystals, whose chirality was confirmed through X-ray crystallography.