This phenomenon is well known as the MHD (magnetohydrodynamic) effect. When a magnetic field is imposed on an electrochemical cell, the Lorentz force acting on the faradaic currents generates convections around the electrodes in the electrolytic solutions 20, 21. Similarly, we previously reported that magnetoelectrodeposition produces chiral surfaces on silver 16, 17 and copper 18, 19 metal thin films. Here, we report the chirality induction in metal electrodeposits through the magnetohydrodynamic micro-vortex motion of fluids.Īogaki showed that electrolysis in a magnetic field (magnetoelectrolysis) causes vortices on electrode surfaces 15. Thus, even macroscopic vortices have an asymmetric influence on supramolecular formation and alignment at the nanometer scale. 9 reported that DNA molecules could align helically in a vortex generated by mechanical stirring. 5 demonstrated the chiral sign induction in the aggregation of achiral porphyrins in aqueous solutions through vortices. One of the most probable symmetry-breaking inductions is the vortex motion of fluids for deposition and crystal growth in the oceans. Thus, the chiral formations on metal or metal compound surfaces could be a key processes in the origin of the homochirality in biomolecules. If such catalytic surfaces were chiral, then one biomolecule enantiomer would be rich and another would be poor.

iron sulfide, are likely to have catalysed prebiotic reactions to produce biomolecules such as amino acids in the oceans on early Earth 13, 14. Regarding the molecular evolution of life, the surfaces of minerals, e.g.

However, a final conclusion regarding a universal homochirality mechanism has not yet been reached. A number of reports have proposed 1 mechanisms of homochirality, such as those for circularly polarised light 2, 3, magneto-chiral fields 4, vortex and stirring conditions 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and nonlinear autocatalysis 10, 11, 12. These differences in activity depending on the chirality of biomolecules are related to the origin of life on Earth and are one of the most attractive mysteries in the life sciences. Many types of chiral molecules exist in biochemical systems, in which one enantiomer is active and the other is inactive.

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