| Abstract
| - The present work seeks to illuminate the underlying principles which control the aggregation of chiral buildingblocks into larger aggregates by examining the role that entropy plays in this process. Entropic effects arefirst examined within the confines of a simple model system, and the results are then compared to experimentaldata on clusters of amino acids. The model system predicts that the formation of a specific structure is morelikely to occur from an enantiopure solution because forming a particular structure from a racemic solutionis hindered by significant entropic barriers. These predictions are in good agreement with the experimentalresults. In our examination of clusters of all of the amino acids, clusters which are unusually abundant arefound only when enantiopure solutions are sampled. Furthermore, the majority of all clusters exhibit nopreference for chiral composition, suggesting that entropic effects negate any changes in enthalpy. Althoughthe experimental data are not comprehensive, our results strongly suggest that specificity in homochiral clustersis entropically advantageous compared to specificity in racemic clusters.
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