Cooperative expression of atomic chirality in inorganic nanostructures

Peng-peng Wang, Shang-Jie Yu, Alexander O Govorov and Min Ouyang ()
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Peng-peng Wang: University of Maryland
Shang-Jie Yu: University of Maryland
Alexander O Govorov: Ohio University
Min Ouyang: University of Maryland

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: 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.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14312

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