Mikael Håkansson
	Professor
	Organometallic Chemistry
	Department of Chemistry
	University of Gothenburg
	SE-412 96 Göteborg, Sweden
	+46(0)31-7722896
	Email: hson@

The creation of optically active products from achiral starting materials, without any external chiral influence, may be referred to as absolute asymmetric synthesis.  We are searching for spontaneous symmetry-breaking reactions, based on crystallization-induced asymmetric transformation of new reagents and substrate complexes.  Such reactions may have been responsible for the origin of a homochiral pool of molecules on prebiotic earth.

Absolute Asymmetric Synthesis of Chiral-at-Metal Grignard Reagents
M. Vestergren, J. Eriksson, M. Håkansson,
Chem. Eur. J. 2003, 9, 4678-4686

Octahedral Grignard Reagents Can Be Chiral at Magnesium 
M. Vestergren, B. Gustafsson, O. Davidsson, M. Håkansson,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 2000, 39, 3435-3437.

Isolation and Spontaneous Resolution of Eight-Coordinate Stereoisomers
M. Håkansson, M. Vestergren, B. Gustafsson, G. Hilmersson,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 1999, 38, 2199-2201

2008-02-05