This book provides a self-contained introduction to the concept of chirality at surfaces, starting from the foundation of chirality in isolated molecules and bulk systems. Fundamental properties such as surface energy and surface stress are then linked to a universal systematization of surface structure and symmetry. Subsequent chapters survey key examples of surface chemistry and physics, including the interplay between adsorbate and substrate chirality, amplification of chirality, chiral catalysis, and the influence of surface chirality upon optical and magnetic phenomena. The book concludes with forays into the chirality apparent in the electronic structure of graphene and related materials, and into the possible origins of natural homochirality in the era of prebiotic surface chemistry.
The book is designed to benefit readers with a background in homogeneous chirality, who will appreciate a discussion that clearly indicates how the lowered dimensionality of the surface modifies phenomena that are familiar from bulk phases, and also readers with a background in non-chiral heterogeneous systems, who will be introduced to the variety of ways in which symmetry may be broken at the surface, both spontaneously and through deliberate perturbation. In each case the aim is to provide a discussion that focuses upon the "big picture", and there is an emphasis on the manifestation of chirality in a variety of phenomena, not just surface chemistry.
Several computational and experimental techniques are referred to within the book. For the benefit of readers from outside of surface science who may be unfamiliar with some of these techniques, a set of brief appendices is included with highly condensed summaries of the different techniques and pointers to introductory literature.
