Chirality conversion of chiral crystals under grinding

Molecules, either chiral or achiral, sometimes form chiral structures in crystallization. Viedma discovered a remarkable chirality conversion of crystals by simply grinding crystals in a solution. Although the phenomenon is simple, the underlying mechanism is still controversial. In this article, by using a simple reaction model and generalized Becker-Doering model, we show that the idea of cluster incorporation to crystals can explain various anomalous features of related experiments. (author)