Chiral-Induced Spin Selectivity as a Driving Force in Enantiorecognition: A Generator-and-Reader Perspective

Abstract

Abstract Enantiorecognition is conventionally rationalized through stereochemical models, such as lock-and-key, induced-fit, and three-point interaction schemes, in which a chiral selector discriminates between enantiomers through geometry and noncovalent interactions. Nevertheless, such models are blind to electron spin. Chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS) brings electron spin explicitly into this picture. Here, we argue that spin-selective charge transfer can provide an additional, predominantly kinetic contribution to enantiorecognition, most clearly expressed out of equilibrium, where it affects adsorption, reaction, or charge-transfer rates. We organize this view as a generator-and-reader scheme: a chiral element under a nonequilibrium drive generates a handedness-locked spin polarization, which is then read either by a ferromagnet, through exchange, or by a second chiral element, through spin matching, with no external magnet required. Recent experiments on magnetic adsorption, electrochemical junctions, organic photoelectrochemical transistors, and magnetization-controlled growth of helical aggregates from achiral units converge on this generator-and-reader structure. Across these platforms (spanning molecular, axial, and emergent mesoscopic chirality), a common signature recurs: a handedness-dependent, spin-selective current at a chiral charge-transfer interface. Rather than replacing stereochemical models, this framework adds a spin-resolved electronic coordinate to them: one that becomes experimentally visible when chiral recognition is coupled to nonequilibrium charge transfer.