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Subsequent investigation into the absolute stereochemistry confirmed the D-ribose configuration, thereby reinforcing the planar structure of this compound.

This discovery became the foundation of a subdiscipline of chemistry known as stereochemistry, which is the study of the spatial arrangement of atoms within molecules.

Nevertheless, achieving highly enantioselective photochirogenesis is not a trivial matter, because excited molecules are short-lived and highly reactive, and because it is difficult to precisely control the stereochemistry — the geometrical arrangement of groups in a molecule — of products formed from reactions of excited molecules.

To add to the challenge, the orientation in which new C–C bonds are installed — the stereochemistry of the reaction — affects the overall shape of the final molecule3, which in turn can affect the molecule’s function in applications.

This is followed by a ‘desymmetrization’ reaction10, which generates a carboxylic acid and sets the absolute stereochemistry in the resulting product.