CRYSTAL GROWTH IS THE ONLY CHEMICAL PROCESS KNOWN WHICH CAN CAUSE SPONATANEOUS RESOLUTION OF ORGANIC COMPOUNDS IN THE ABSENCE OF ANY EXTERNAL CHIRAL INFLUENCE.

CRYSTAL GROWTH IS THE ONLY CHEMICAL PROCESS KNOWN WHICH CAN CAUSE SPONATANEOUS RESOLUTION OF ORGANIC COMPOUNDS IN THE ABSENCE OF ANY EXTERNAL CHIRAL INFLUENCE. MANY ORGANIC COMPOUNDS, WHETHER CHIRAL OR NOT, ARE KNOWN TO CRYSTALLIZE IN RESOLVED SINGLE CHIRAL CRYSTALS FROM SOLUTION, MELT, OR SUBLIMATION CRYSTALLIZATIONS ON EARTH. WE PROPOSE TO DETERMINE WHETHER THE SPONTANEOUS RESOLUTION PROCESS ALSO OCCURS IN SPACE UNDER MICROGRAVITY CONDITIONS. THESE EXPERIMENTS WILL BE DONE IN PHASE I USING A PROPRIETARY GEL-GROWTH PROCESS WHICH SIMULATES THE MICROGRAVITY ENVIRONMENT. COMPOUNDS WHICH WILL BE STUDIED FOR SMALL MOLECULE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS WITH WHICH WE HAVE ALREADY HAD CONSIDERABLE SOLUTION CRYSTAL GROWTH EXPERIENCE. WE WILL USE THE MICROGRAVITY CRYSTAL-GROWTH APPARATUS TO GROW ENANTIOMORPHOUS CRYSTAL FORMS OF EITHER ACHIRAL OR CHIRAL MOLECULES AND TO DETERMINE IF CRYSTALLIZATION IN GELS CAN LEAD TO IMPROVED METHODS FOR PHYSICALLY RESOLVING COMMERCIALLY IMPORTANT RACEMIC COMPOUNDS SUCH AS METHADONE AND MANDELIC ACID. THE INTENT OF THESE EXPERIMENTS IS TO OBTAIN PRELIMINARY INFORMATION ABOUT CRYSTAL-GROWTH PROCESSES UNDER MICROGRAVITY CONDITIONS PRIOR TO DESIGNING AND PERFORMING THE EXPERIMENTS IN SPACE ON A SPACE SHUTTLE. THESE EXPERIMENTS DIFFER FROM OTHER CRYSTAL-GROWTH EXPERIMENTS IN SPACE IN THAT WE ARE USING SIMULATIONS IN ORDER TO DESIGN OUR EXPERIMENTS AND WE ARE TESTING THE EFFECTS OF MICROGRAVITY ON A PARTICULAR CRYSTALLIZATION PROCESS, NAMELY SPONTANEOUS RESOLUTION, WHICH MANIFESTS ITSELF IN MACROSCONIC CHANGES IN CRYSTALS, NOT JUST CHANGES IN QUALITY OR SIZE.