Work

Cooperative expression of atomic chirality in inorganic nanostructures

Year: 2017

Type: article

Abstract: Cooperative chirality phenomena extensively exist in biomolecular and organic systems via intra- and inter-molecular interactions, but study of inorganic materials has been lacking. Here we report, experimentally and theoretically, cooperative chirality in colloidal cinnabar mercury sulfide nanocrystals that originates from chirality interplay between the crystallographic lattice and geometric morphology at different length scales. A two-step synthetic scheme is developed to allow control of critical parameters of these two types of handedness, resulting in different chiral interplays expressed as observables through materials engineering. Furthermore, we adopt an electromagnetic model with the finite element method to elucidate cooperative chirality in inorganic systems, showing excellent agreement with experimental results. Our study enables an emerging class of nanostructures with tailored cooperative chirality that is vital for fundamental understanding of nanoscale chirality as well as technology applications based on new chiroptical building blocks.

Source: Nature Communications

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14312

Authors: Peng-peng Wang, Shang-Jie Yu, Alexander O Govorov, Min Ouyang

Institutions: University of Maryland, College Park, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Ohio University

Language: English

Topic: Molecular spectroscopy and chirality

Subfield: Spectroscopy

Field: Chemistry

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $6,990

Funders: National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research, Division of Materials Research