Helical solutes orientationally ordered in anisotropic media composed of helical particles: Formulation of a mean torque potential sensitive to P and M chirality as a tool for the assignment of the absolute configuration of enantiomers

Abstract In this paper, a chirality-sensitive effective orientational potential is, for the first time, proposed. It describes, within the Molecular Field approximation, different solute-solvent ordering interactions, according to the P (clockwise) or M (counterclockwise) nature of helical particles dissolved in uniaxial anisotropic solvents composed, in their turn, of helical P or M particles. By making use of Monte Carlo-simulated order parameters, it is shown that the model is, in principle, able to lead to the absolute enantiorecognition of the unknown chirality of the helical solute particles. This makes it a possible interesting tool for exploiting NMR anisotropic observables in order to achieve the absolute enantiomer assignment of chiral helical solutes.