Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Construction of artificial microscale helical superstructures holds great significance for understanding hierarchical evolution of chiral architectures in nature. However, fabricating microscale helical superstructures from metal clusters remains mysterious and challenging. Here, we achieved hierarchically assembled helical bowties with micrometer scale via electrostatic interaction-driven co-assembly of chiral Au 4 clusters and trans -1,4-cyclohexanediamine. The size and conformation matching of chiral Au 4 and trans -1,4-cyclohexanediamine compared to the other amines promotes continuous chirality transfer from Au 4 to nanoplatelets and finally to helical microbowties that follows Au 4 molecular chirality. We elucidated hierarchical evolution mechanism of morphology from nanoplatelets to microcake and to helical microbowties through gradual helical stacking and twisting of nanoplatelets. Furthermore, these helical microbowties exhibited excellent switchable photoluminescence and circularly polarized luminescence characteristics governed by dissociation and recombination of electrostatic interactions. This work demonstrates the formation of controllable metal cluster–based helical microbowties and deepens the understanding of chirality transfer and expression at microscale.
Source: Science Advances
Authors: Shuai-Peng Chen, Jiajia Zhang, Qi-Xiang Cai, Yubing Si, Ying-Xue Yuan, Shuang-Quan Zang
Institution: Zhengzhou University
Language: English
Subfield: Materials Chemistry
Field: Materials Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $4,500
OpenAlex ID: W4412483136