The effect of the formation of ensembles of chiral templates on the enantioselectivity of model heterogeneous catalysts is studied theoretically in the framework of a cooperative sequential adsorption model. Analytical solutions are presented for random adsorption onto a chirally templated surface which indicate that the surface exhibits a maximum enantioselectivity of similar to2.5, in agreement with results of enantioselective chemisorption experiments carried out in ultrahigh vacuum. It is suggested that the high enantioselectivity (greater than or similar to90%) encountered in commercial catalysts could be due to correlated adsorption of the template molecules, and that these effects can be modeled using Monte Carlo calculations. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.