ABSTRACT
Optical isomers (stereoisomers) have been known for many years and were rst identify by Biot in the early 1800s [1]. Their existence was established by Pasteur in 1848 [2]. In 1883, Lord Kelvin used the term chirality, derived from the Greek kheir or chiros for handedness [3]. Chirality has very important and essential roles in the existence of the universe (e.g., plants, animals). All living nature is dissymmetric, whereas dead nature is symmetric. Any object lacking the elements of symmetry (i.e., plane, center, and axis of symmetry and helicity) and existing in two forms that are nonsuperimposable mirror images of each other is called a chiral object. Examples of molecules’ chirality are presented in Figure 15.1.
