Crystallization and Chiral Purity: Fundamentals and Advances

Chiral purity has become an increasingly important characteristic of many specialty chemicals, especially pharmaceuticals. Manufacturers seeking chiral purity have two choices: (1) utilize syntheses that directly yield such purity or (2) separate and purify the desired stereoisomer from a mixture containing one or more isomers of the desired form. In this presentation, we highlight the use of crystallization in meeting the challenges of such separations. Particular emphasis will be given to the role of nucleation in determining the identity of the species produced and to how system conditions may be manipulated to influence the process outcome.