Pasteur made simple – mechanochemical transformation of racemic amino acid crystals into racemic conglomerate crystals

Abstract

Conglomerate crystallization is required for many deracemization or enantioenrichment protocols. Here, we report the metal-mediated mechanochemical transformation of racemic compounds of some proteinogenic amino acids – valine, leucine and isoleucine – into their corresponding conglomerates. Specifically, ZnO has the ability to promote and stabilize the conglomerate phase of these amino acids to an extent where the racemic compound is not observed.