Title: helicity
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - helicity
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.H02763
Status: current

Definition
The chirality of a helical, propeller or screw-shaped molecular entity. A right-handed helix is described as P (or plus), a left-handed one as M (or minus).    The application of this system to the description of conformations considers the torsion angle between two specified (fiducial) groups that are attached to the atoms linked by that bond. The sign of the smaller torsion angle between the fiducial groups defines the chirality sense of the helix. Rules for the selection of fiducial groups according to priority are given by R.S. Cahn, C.K. Ingold and V. Prelog, Angew. Chem. 78, 413-447 (1966), Angew. Chem. Internat. Ed. Eng. 5, 385-415, 511 (1966).

Related Terms
- axial chirality: https://dev.goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/A00547
- chirality: https://dev.goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/C01058
- chirality sense: https://dev.goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/C01063
- helix: https://dev.goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/H02769
- priority: https://dev.goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/P04854
- torsion angle: https://dev.goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/T06406
- Δ, Λ: https://dev.goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/D01511

Source
- PAC, 1996, 68, 2193. 'Basic terminology of stereochemistry (IUPAC Recommendations 1996)' on page 2209 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199668122193)

Other Outputs
- html: https://dev.goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/H02763/html
- json: https://dev.goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/H02763/json
- xml: https://dev.goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/H02763/xml

Citation: Citation: 'helicity' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.H02763
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Accessed: 2025-12-13T23:04:04+00:00