Cooperative expression of atomic chirality in inorganic nanostructures

Single Crystal and Pentatwinned Gold Nanorods Result in Chiral Nanocrystals with Reverse Handedness

Handedness is an essential attribute of chiral nanocrystals, having a major influence on their properties. During chemical growth, the handedness of nanocrystals is usually tuned by selecting the corresponding enantiomer of chiral molecules involved in asymmetric growth, often known as chiral inducers. We report that, even using the same chiral inducer enantiomer, the handedness of chiral gold nanocrystals can be reversed by using Au nanorod seeds with either single crystalline or pentatwinned structure. This effect holds for chiral growth induced both by amino acids and by chiral micelles. Although it was challenging to discern the morphological handedness for L-cystine-directed particles, even using electron tomography, both cases showed circular dichroism bands of opposite sign, with nearly mirrored chiroptical signatures for chiral micelle-directed growth, along with quasi-helical wrinkles of inverted handedness. These results expand the chiral growth toolbox with an effect that might be exploited to yield a host of interesting morphologies with tunable optical properties.

Multicomponent chiral plasmonic hybrid nanomaterials: recent advances in synthesis and applications

Chiral hybrid nanomaterials with multiple components provide a highly promising approach for the integration of desired chirality with other functionalities into one single nanoscale entity. However, precise control over multicomponent chiral plasmonic hybrid nanomaterials to enable their application in diverse and complex scenarios remains a significant challenge. In this review, our focus lies on the recent advances in the preparation and application of multicomponent chiral plasmonic hybrid nanomaterials, with an emphasis on synthetic strategies and emerging applications. We first systematically elucidate preparation methods for multicomponent chiral plasmonic hybrid nanomaterials encompassing the following approaches: physical deposition approach, galvanic replacement reaction, chiral molecule-mediated, chiral heterostructure, circularly polarized light-mediated, magnetically induced, and chiral assembly. Furthermore, we highlight emerging applications of multicomponent chiral plasmonic hybrid nanomaterials in chirality sensing, enantioselective catalysis, and biomedicine. Finally, we provide an outlook on the challenges and opportunities in the field of multicomponent chiral plasmonic hybrid nanomaterials. In-depth investigations of these multicomponent chiral hybrid nanomaterials will pave the way for the rational design of chiral hybrid nanostructures with desirable functionalities for emerging technological applications.

Chiral Mesostructured Inorganic Materials with Optical Chiral Response

Fabricating chiral inorganic materials and revealing their unique quantum confinement-determined optical chiral responses are crucial tasks in the multidisciplinary fields of chemistry, physics, and biology. The field of chiral mesostructured inorganic materials started from the synthesis of individual nanocrystals and evolved to include their assembly from metals, semiconductors, ceramics, and inorganic salts endowed with various chiral structures ranging from atomic to micron scales. This tutorial review highlights the recent research on chiral mesostructured inorganic materials, especially the novel expression of mesostructured chirality and endowed optical chiral response, and it may inspire us with new strategies for the design of chiral inorganic materials and new opportunities beyond the traditional applications of chirality. Fabrication methods for chiral mesostructured inorganic materials are classified according to chirality type, scale, and symmetry-breaking mechanism. Special attention is given to highlight systems with original discoveries, exceptional phenomena, or unique mechanisms of optical chiral response for left- and right-handedness.

Chiral Iron Oxide Supraparticles Enable Enantiomer-Dependent Tumor-Targeted Magnetic Resonance Imaging

The chemical, physical and biological effects of chiral nanomaterials have inspired general interest and demonstrated important advantages in fundamental science. Here, chiral iron oxide supraparticles (Fe3 O4 SPs) modified by chiral penicillamine (Pen) molecules with g-factor of ≈2 × 10-3 at 415 nm are fabricated, and these SPs act as high-quality magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents. Therein, the transverse relaxation efficiency and T2 -MRI results demonstrated chiral Fe3 O4 SPs have a r2 relaxivity of 157.39 ± 2.34 mM-1 ·S-1 for D-Fe3 O4 SPs and 136.21 ± 1.26 mM-1 ·S-1 for L-Fe3 O4 SPs due to enhanced electronic transition dipole moment for D-Fe3 O4 SPs compared with L-Fe3 O4 SPs. The in vivo MRI results show that D-Fe3 O4 SPs exhibit two-fold lower contrast ratio than L-Fe3 O4 SPs, which enhances targeted enrichment in tumor tissue, such as prostate cancer, melanoma and brain glioma tumors. Notably, it is found that D-Fe3 O4 SPs have 7.7-fold higher affinity for the tumor cell surface receptor cluster-of-differentiation 47 (CD47) than L-Fe3 O4 SPs. These findings uncover that chiral Fe3 O4 SPs act as a highly effective MRI contrast agent for targeting and imaging broad tumors, thus accelerating the practical application of chiral nanomaterials and deepening the understanding of chirality in biological and non-biological environments.

Chiral probes for biosensing

Chiral inorganic nanomaterials have emerged as a highly promising area of research in nanoscience due to their exceptional light-matter interaction and vast potential applications in chiral sensing, asymmetric catalysis, enantiomer separation, and negative-index materials. We present an overview of the latest advances in chiral inorganic nanomaterials including chiral individual nanoparticles, chiral assemblies, and chiral film-based sensors over the past ten years. Additionally, we discuss the challenges and future perspectives for developing chiral nanomaterials in biosensing applications.

Optical Asymmetry and Structural Complexity in Hierarchically Organized Chiral CuO Nanostructures: Insight into the Geometric and Crystallographic Effects on Cooperative Chirality

Optical asymmetry and structural complexity across different length scales were realized in flower-shaped CuO nanostructures, prepared through refluxing an aqueous solution of copper acetate, sodium hydroxide, and D-tartaric acid, as well as in their toroid-like forms obtained on calcination at 600 °C. Atomic scale chirality in the flower morphology could be visualized as putative Boerdijk-Coexter-Bernal like tetrahelical fragments, while that in the toroid form could be identified as screw dislocation-driven helicity. The fraction of asymmetry in the nanostructures has been evaluated from their chiroptical responses based on Kuhn asymmetry factor (g) from circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy in the entire UV-vis range. The origin of chirality in the two CuO nanostructures has been assigned to the helical arrangement of the Cu-O-Cu network in accordance with their microscopic and spectroscopic observations. Attempts have been made to interpret the crystallographic and geometric chiralities in the two CuO nanostructures based on the redshift and augmented intensity of the CD signal along with an increase in their corresponding anisotropic factor on calcination. Further, the diverse interaction of the toroid-shaped CuO nanostructures with enantiomeric tryptophan moieties has been illustrated from the measurement of their corresponding thermodynamic parameters.

Chiral Inorganic Nanomaterials for Photo(electro)catalytic Conversion

Chiral inorganic nanomaterials due to their unique asymmetric nanostructures have gradually demonstrated intriguing chirality-dependent performance in photo(electro)catalytic conversion, such as water splitting. However, understanding the correlation between chiral inorganic characteristics and the photo(electro)catalytic process remains challenging. In this perspective, we first highlight the chirality source of inorganic nanomaterials and briefly introduce photo(electro)catalysis systems. Then, we delve into an in-depth discussion of chiral effects exerted by chiral nanostructures and their photo-electrochemistry properties, while emphasizing the emerging chiral inorganic nanomaterials for photo(electro)catalytic conversion. Finally, the challenges and opportunities of chiral inorganic nanomaterials for photo(electro)catalytic conversion are prospected. This perspective provides a comprehensive overview of chiral inorganic nanomaterials and their potential in photo(electro)catalytic conversion, which is beneficial for further research in this area.

Geometric Control and Optical Properties of Intrinsically Chiral Plasmonic Nanomaterials

Intrinsically chiral plasmonic nanomaterials exhibit intriguing geometry-dependent chiroptical properties, which is due to the combination of plasmonic features with geometric chirality. Thus, chiral plasmonic nanomaterials have become promising candidates for applications in biosensing, asymmetric catalysis, biomedicine, photonics, etc. Recent advances in geometric control and optical tuning of intrinsically chiral plasmonic nanomaterials have further opened up a unique opportunity for their widespread applications in many emerging technological areas. Here, the recent developments in the geometric control of chiral plasmonic nanomaterials are reviewed with special attention given to the quantitative understanding of the chiroptical structure-property relationship. Several important optical spectroscopic tools for characterizing the optical chirality of plasmonic nanomaterials at both ensemble and single-particle levels are also discussed. Three emerging applications of chiral plasmonic nanomaterials, including enantioselective sensing, enantioselective catalysis, and biomedicine, are further highlighted. It is envisioned that these advanced studies in chiral plasmonic nanomaterials will pave the way toward the rational design of chiral nanomaterials with desired optical properties for diverse emerging technological applications.

Multicolor Circularly Polarized Luminescence from Inorganic Crystalline Nanostructures Induced by Atomic Chirality

Circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) is well-studied in molecular systems but has been rarely reported in pure inorganic nanoscale crystals. Herein, we develop a family of pure inorganic rare-earth nanowires with robust and color-tunable CPL emissions. The chiral rare earth nanowires possess intrinsic atomic chirality with controlled handedness that is guided by the enantiomers with molecular chirality in the synthesis. By varying luminescent ions incorporated in the crystal lattice, color-tunable CPL can be achieved and is thermally robust, preserving emission over 300 °C, distinct from existing CPL-active materials. Moreover, as a proof of concept, we demonstrate that the synthesized nanostructures can be easily dispersed in a polymer matrix to enable transparent and flexible CPL films. This study opens up a promising avenue to design robust and tunable CPL materials helpful to the understanding of inorganic chiral information and capable of further applications in novel optoelectronic devices.

Chiral Perovskite Nanocrystal Growth inside Helical Hollow Silica Nanoribbons

Helical perovskite nanocrystals (H-PNCs) were prepared using nanometric silica helical ribbons as platforms for the in situ growth of the crystals using the supersaturated recrystallization method. The H-PNCs grow inside nanometric helical porous silica, and their handedness is determined by the handedness of porous silica templates. They show both strong induced circular dichroism (CD) and strong induced circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) signals, with high dissymmetry g-factors. Right-handed and left-handed PNCs show respectively positive and negative CD and CPL signals, with a dissymmetry g-factor (abs and lum) of ∼±2 × 10^-2. Simulations based on the boundary element method demonstrate that the circular dichroism originates from the chiral shape of H-PNCs.

Voltage-Modulated Untwist Deformations and Multispectral Optical Effects from Ion Intercalation into Chiral Ceramic Nanoparticles

Reconfiguration of chiral ceramic nanostructures after ion intercalation should favor specific nanoscale twists leading to strong chiroptical effects.  In this work, V₂ O₃ nanoparticles are shown to have "built-in" chiral distortions caused by binding of tartaric acid enantiomers to the nanoparticle surface. As evidenced by spectroscopy/microscopy techniques and calculations of nanoscale chirality measures, the intercalation of Zn²⁺ ions into the V₂ O₃ lattice results in particle expansion, untwist deformations, and chirality reduction. Coherent deformations in the particle ensemble manifest as changes in sign and positions of circular polarization bands at ultraviolet, visible, mid-infrared (IR), near-IR (NIR), and IR wavelengths. The g-factors observed for IR and NIR spectral diapasons are ≈100-400 times higher than those for previously reported dielectric, semiconductor, and plasmonic nanoparticles. Nanocomposite films layer-by-layer assembled (LBL) from V₂ O₃ nanoparticles reveal cyclic-voltage-driven modulation of optical activity. Device prototypes for IR and NIR range problematic for liquid crystals and other organic materials are demonstrated. High optical activity, synthetic simplicity, sustainable processability, and environmental robustness of the chiral LBL nanocomposites provide a versatile platform for photonic devices. Similar reconfigurations of particle shapes are expected for multiple chiral ceramic nanostructures, leading to unique optical, electrical, and magnetic properties.

Chiroptical Activity in All-Inorganic Intrinsically Chiral Perovskite-like Nanocrystals Synthesized via Enantioselective Strategy

Enantiomeric control of intrinsically chiral inorganic nanocrystals (NCs), despite being reported in few systems over the past years, still remains a challenging task. Here, we succeeded in the enantioselective synthesis of intrinsically chiral perovskite-like CsCuCl₃ NCs in the presence of chiral amino acids using an antisolvent crystallization method at room temperature. The d-/l-ligand-induced enantiomeric NCs showed the relevant characteristic chiroptical responses. Interestingly, under the addition of each d- or l-form of the ligand, the chiroptical activity of the NCs could be tailored through facilely tuning the Cs/Cu feed ratios and amino acid types. The polarity of such amino acids and their coordination configurations with the NC structures contributed to the distinct behaviors. The ability to manipulate the ligand-induced enantioselective strategy would open pathways for the controllable synthesis of intrinsically chiral inorganics and enable a better understanding of the origins of precursor-ligand-associated chiral discrimination and crystallization phenomena.

Circularly Polarized Light-Enabled Chiral Nanomaterials: From Fabrication to Application

For decades, chiral nanomaterials have been extensively studied because of their extraordinary properties. Chiral nanostructures have attracted a lot of interest because of their potential applications including biosensing, asymmetric catalysis, optical devices, and negative index materials. Circularly polarized light (CPL) is the most attractive source for chirality owing to its high availability, and now it has been used as a chiral source for the preparation of chiral matter. In this review, the recent progress in the field of CPL-enabled chiral nanomaterials is summarized. Firstly, the recent advancements in the fabrication of chiral materials using circularly polarized light are described, focusing on the unique strategies. Secondly, an overview of the potential applications of chiral nanomaterials driven by CPL is provided, with a particular emphasis on biosensing, catalysis, and phototherapy. Finally, a perspective on the challenges in the field of CPL-enabled chiral nanomaterials is given.

Chiral-engineered supraparticles: Emerging tools for drug delivery

The handedness of chiral-engineered supraparticles (CE-SPs) influences their interactions with cells and proteins, as evidenced by the increased penetration of breast, cervical, and myeloma cell membranes by d-chirality-coordinated SPs. Quartz crystal dissipation and isothermal titration calorimetry have been used to investigate such chiral-specific interactions. d-SPs are more thermodynamically stable compared with l-SPs in terms of their adhesion. Proteases and other endogenous proteins can be shielded by the opposite chirality of d-SPs, resulting in longer half-lives. Incorporating nanosystems with d-chirality increases uptake by cancer cells and prolongs in vivo stability, demonstrating the importance of chirality in biomaterials. Thus, as we discuss here, chiral nanosystems could enhance drug delivery systems, tumor markers, and biosensors, among other biomaterial-based technologies, by allowing for better control over their features.

Extracting Pure Circular Dichroism from Hierarchically Structured CdS Magic Cluster Films

Chiroptically active, hierarchically structured materials are difficult to accurately characterize due to linear anisotropic contributions (i.e., linear dichroism (LD) and linear birefringence (LB)) and parasitic ellipticities that produce artifactual circular dichroism (CD) signals, in addition to chiral analyte contributions ranging from molecular-scale clusters to micron-sized assemblies. Recently, we have shown that CdS magic-sized clusters (MSC) can self-assemble into ordered films that have a hierarchical structure spanning seven orders of length-scale. These films have a strong CD response, but the chiral origins are obfuscated by the hierarchical architecture and LDLB contributions. Here, we derive and demonstrate a method for extracting the "pure" CD signal (CD generated by structural dissymmetry) from hierarchical MSC films and identified the chiral origin. The theory behind the method is derived using Mueller matrix and Stokes vector conventions and verified experimentally before being applied to hierarchical MSC and nanoparticle films with varying macroscopic orderings. Each film's extracted "true CD" shares a bisignate profile aligned with the exciton peak, indicating the assemblies adopt a chiral arrangement and form an exciton coupled system. Interestingly, the linearly aligned MSC film possesses one of the highest g-factors (0.05) among semiconducting nanostructures reported. Additionally, we find that films with similar electronic transition dipole alignment can possess greatly different g-factors, indicating chirality change rather than anisotropy is the cause of the difference in the CD signal. The difference in g-factor is controllable via film evaporation geometry. This study provides a simple means to measure "true" CD and presents an example of experimentally understanding chiroptic interactions in hierarchical nanostructures.

Synthesis of Ligand-Induced Chiral Tellurium Nanocrystals

Chiral tellurium nanoparticles have recently garnered tremendous attention as emerging inorganic nanomaterials with intrinsically chiral space groups owing to their potential in next-generation stereosynthesis, spintronics, and optoelectronics. Inspired by the chiral ligand-mediated synthetic strategy, we herein present hydrothermal-assisted synthesis of chiral polyhedral tellurium nanoparticles that provides differed chirogenesis than that of particles fabricated by wet chemistry in recent studies; the thiolated cysteine molecules change the morphology of tellurium nanoparticles from fundamental two-dimensional shapes to chiral three-dimensional polyhedra owing to the screw dislocation effects observed only during nanoparticle growth. However, the nanoparticles do not exhibit chiral behaviors at the nucleation stage. Further investigation indicates that the growth of chiral polyhedral tellurium nanoparticles is overwhelmingly affected by parameters such as the hydrothermal reaction time, amount of polyvinylpyrrolidone, and species of chiral molecules. We believe that these findings can provide new insights into the fundamental relationships among structural chirality, chiral ligands, screw dislocations, and chiral space groups in principle.

The thermodynamic origins of chiral twist in monolayer assemblies of rod-like colloids

The propagation of chirality across scales is a common but poorly understood phenomenon in soft matter. Here, using computer simulations, we study twisted monolayer assemblies formed by both chiral and achiral rod-like particles in the presence of non-adsorbing polymer and characterise the thermodynamic driving forces responsible for the twisting. We observe assemblies with both like and inverted chirality relative to the rods and show that the preferred twist is already determined during the initial stage of the self-assembly. Depending on the geometry of the constituent rods, the chiral twist is regulated by either the entropy gain of the polymer, or of the rods, or both. This can include important contributions from changes in both the surface area and volume of the monolayer and from rod fluctuations perpendicular to the monolayer. These findings can deepen our understanding of why chirality propagates and of how to control it.

Chiral-Solvent-Mediated Manganese-Based Hierarchical Supraparticles with Chiroptical Activity

In this study, manganese-based multiply hierarchical chiral supraparticles (SPs), with an anisotropy factor (g-factor) of 0.102 and circular dichroism (CD) intensity of 260 mdeg at 530 nm, are successfully synthesized with polar-solvent-mediated strategies. Notably, the g-factor of the SPs is further enhanced to 0.121 by the addition of an external chiral solvent, generating a chiral biased environment, which increases their CD intensity to 320 mdeg at 500 nm. The mechanism underlying the different chirality is proposed to be a difference in the angle of tilt of ±33° between the two enantiomers of the chiral SPs, which involves a difference of ±7° between the orientation of individual nanoplatelets. Chiral solvents induce the angle between adjacent nanoplatelets to get smaller than the original structure that leads to their higher anisotropic value. These findings potentially provide a practical method for the construction of complex chiral superstructures and the regulation of chiroptical activity.

Synchronous quantitative analysis of chiral mesostructured inorganic crystals by 3D electron diffraction tomography

Chiral mesostructures exhibit distinctive twisting and helical hierarchical stacking ranging from atomic to micrometre scales with fascinating structural-chiral anisotropy properties. However, the detailed determination of their multilevel chirality remains challenging due to the limited information from spectroscopy, diffraction techniques, scanning electron microscopy and the two-dimensional projections in transmission electron microscopy. Herein, we report a general approach to determine chiral hierarchical mesostructures based on three-dimensional electron diffraction tomography (3D EDT), by which the structure can be solved synchronously according to the quantitative measurement of diffraction spot deformations and their arrangement in reciprocal space. This method was verified on two samples-chiral mesostructured nickel molybdate and chiral mesostructured tin dioxide-revealing hierarchical chiral structures that cannot be determined by conventional techniques. This approach provides more precise and comprehensive identification of the hierarchical mesostructures, which is expected to advance our understanding of structural-chiral anisotropy at the fundamental level.

Dynamic circular birefringence response with fractured geometric phase metasurface systems

Optical activity is a fundamental property of symmetry-broken three-dimensional systems and enables control of the polarization state of electromagnetic waves. This work introduces a type of reconfigurable geometric phase response in which shearing displacements between two Pancharatnam–Berry-phase metasurfaces transduce chiral symmetry breaking within nanoscale waveguide structures. These metasurface systems, termed fractured metasurface waveplates, can be tailored to support dynamically tunable, broadband circular birefringence responses. Polarization modulation is based on microscopic motions and uniquely enables high-speed modulation over large area apertures. Our system paves the way for new classes of nanophotonic devices that feature systems-level symmetry breaking for controlling electromagnetic waves, which is relevant for sensing, imaging, and quantum-control applications.

Control over symmetry breaking in three-dimensional electromagnetic systems offers a pathway to tailoring their optical activity. We introduce fractured Pancharatnam–Berry-phase metasurface systems, in which a full-waveplate geometric phase metasurface is fractured into two half-waveplate-based metasurfaces and actively configured using shear displacement. Local relative rotations between stacked half-nanowaveplates within the metasurface system are transduced by shear displacement, leading to dynamic modulation of their collective geometric phase properties. We apply this concept to pairs of periodic Pancharatnam–Berry-phase metasurfaces and experimentally show that these systems support arbitrary and reconfigurable broadband circular birefringence response. High-speed circular birefringence modulation is demonstrated with modest shearing speeds, indicating the potential for these concepts to dynamically control polarization states with fast temporal responses. We anticipate that fractured geometric phase metasurface systems will serve as a nanophotonic platform that leverages systems-level symmetry breaking to enable active electromagnetic wave control.

Mechanism of diastereoisomer-induced chirality of BiOBr

Chiral molecule-driven asymmetric structures are known to be elusive because of the intriguing chirality transfer from chiral molecules to achiral species. Here, we found that the chiral assembly of BiOBr is independent of the chirality of the organic molecular inducer but dependent on geometric structural matching between the inducer and inorganic species. Diastereoisomeric sugar alcohols (DSAs) with identical numbers of carbon chiral centers and functional groups but with different R/S configurations and optical activities (OAs) were chosen as symmetry-breaking agents for inducing chiral mesostructured BiOBr films (CMBFs) under hydrothermal conditions. Multiple levels of chirality with different handedness were identified in the CMBFs. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations suggest that asymmetric defects in the Br–Bi tetragonal cone caused by physically adsorbed DSAs on the surfaces of the BiOBr crystals are the geometric basis for triggering the chiral twist in the BiOBr monolayer. Our findings provide new insights for understanding the origin of chirality and the chiral transfer mechanism underlying the assembly of achiral species.

The chirality transfer is dependent on geometrical matching between the chiral inducer and inorganic species.

Chiral CuS nanoparticles and their photothermal properties

Chiral CuS NPs were prepared through a ligand-exchange process and CPL-controlled photothermal performance was realized.

Design of surface nanostructures for chirality sensing based on quartz crystal microbalance

Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) has been widely used for various sensing applications, including chirality detection due to the high sensitivity to nanogram or picogram mass changes, fast response, real-time detection, easy operation, suitability in different media, and low experimental cost. The sensing performance of QCM is dependent on the surface design of the recognition layers. Various strategies have been employed for studying the relationship between the structural features and the specific detection of chiral isomers. This review provides an overview of the construction of chiral sensing layers by various nanostructures and materials in the QCM system, which include organic molecules, supermolecular assemblies, inorganic nanostructures, and metal surfaces. The sensing mechanisms based on these surface nanostructures and the related potentials for chiral detection by the QCM system are also summarized.

Inorganic Chiral Hybrid Nanostructures for Tailored Chiroptics and Chirality-Dependent Photocatalysis

Inorganic chiral hybrid nanostructures embedding chirality within distinct material compositions can create novel chiral properties and functionalities absent from achiral ones, but remain largely unexplored. We report for the first time a class of chiral plasmonic metal-semiconductor core-shell nanostructures by employing structurally chiral nanoparticles as chirality inducing templates to grow functional shell materials, which allows us to independently control material parameters including core geometry and shell thickness, as well as handedness of the system. We experimentally and theoretically achieve enhanced and tunable chiroptical activity of the hetero-structures as a result of the core-shell strong coupling effect. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, we show the chiral hybrid nanostructures can drive chirality-dependent photocatalytic hydrogen generation under circularly polarized light. This study enables rational design and functionalization of chiral hybrid nanomaterials towards enhanced chiral light-matter interactions and chiral device applications.

Chiral Perovskites for Next-Generation Photonics: From Chirality Transfer to Chiroptical Activity

Organic-inorganic hybrid halide perovskites (OIHPs) are commonly used as prototypical materials for various applications, including photovoltaics, photodetectors, and light-emitting devices. Since the chiroptical properties of OIHPs are deciphered in 2017, chiral OIHPs have been rediscovered as new hybrid systems comprising chiral organic molecules and achiral inorganic octahedral layers. Owing to their exceptional optoelectrical properties and structural flexibility, chiral OIHPs have received a considerable amount of attention in chiral photonics, chiroptoelectronics, spintronics, and ferroelectrics. Despite their intriguing chiral properties, the transfer mechanism from chiral molecules to achiral semiconductors has not been extensively investigated. Furthermore, an in-depth understanding of the origin of chiroptical activity is still elusive. In this review article, recent advances in the chiroptical activities of chiral OIHPs and polarization-based devices adopting chiral OIHPs are comprehensively discussed, and insight into the underlying chirality transfer mechanism based on theoretical considerations is provided. This comprehensive survey, with an emphasis on the chirality transfer mechanism, will help readers understand the chiroptical properties of OIHPs, which are crucial for the development of spin-based photonic and optoelectronic devices. Additionally, promising strategies to exploit the potential of chiral OIHPs are also discussed.

Chirality Affecting Reaction Dynamics of HgS Nanostructures Simultaneously Visualized in Real and Reciprocal Space

Chirality involved reactions enable to probe features in the fields of asymmetric synthesis and catalysis, which allow to gain insight into the fundamental mechanisms of topochemically controlled reactions. However, in situ observation of the chirality-associated reaction dynamics with simultaneous structural determination of microscopic features has been lacking. Here, we report the direct visualization of the electron-beam-stimulated reaction dynamics of HgS nanostructures with chiral and achiral morphologies simultaneously in both real and reciprocal space. Under the electron-beam excitation of HgS nanostructures, the formation and evaporation dynamics of Hg nanodroplets were vividly pictured, while the reciprocal space imaging revealed the structural transformation from monocrystalline to polycrystalline. Interestingly, such induced changes were size dependent, which were slowed when involving the chirality in the nanostructures. The finding offers a fundamental understanding of topochemically controlled reaction mechanisms and holds promise of tuning asymmetric synthesis for catalysis-related applications.

Construction of an Asymmetric Porphyrinic Zirconium Metal-Organic Framework through Ionic Postchiral Modification

Herein, one kind of neutral chiral zirconium metal-organic framework (Zr-MOF) was reported from the porphyrinic MOF (PMOF) family with a metallolinker (Mn^III-porphyrin) as the achiral polytopic linker [free base tetrakis(4-carboxyphenyl)porphyrin] and chiral anions. Achiral Zr-MOF was chiralized through the exchange of primitive anions with new chiral organic anions (postsynthetic exchange). This chiral functional porphyrinic MOF (CPMOF) was characterized by several techniques such as powder X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, ¹H NMR, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller measurements. In the resulting structure, there are two active metal sites as Lewis acid centers (Zr and Mn) and chiral species as Brønsted acid sites along with their cooperation as nucleophiles. This CPMOF shows considerable bimodal porosity with high surface area and stability. Additionally, its ability was investigated in asymmetric catalyses of prochiral substrates. Interactions between framework chiral species and prochiral substrates have large impacts on the catalytic ability and chirality induction. This chiral catalyst proceeded asymmetric epoxidation and CO₂ fixation reactions at lower pressure with high enantioselectivity due to Lewis acids and chiral auxiliary nucleophiles without significant loss of activity up to the sixth step of consecutive cycles of reusability. Observations revealed that chiralization of Zr-MOF could happen by a succinct strategy that can be a convenient method to design chiral MOFs.

Optically Active Perovskite CsPbBr3 Nanocrystals Helically Arranged on Inorganic Silica Nanohelices

Perovskite nanocrystals (PNCs) exhibit excellent absorption and luminescent properties. Inorganic silica right (or left) handed nanohelices are used as chiral templates to induce optically active properties to CsPbBr₃ PNCs grafted on their surfaces. In suspension, PNCs grafted on the nanohelices do not show any detectable chiroptical properties. In contrast, in a dried film state, they show large circular dichroism (CD) and circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) signals with dissymmetric factor up to 6 × 10^-3. Grazing incidence X-ray scattering, tomography, and cryo-electron microscopy (EM) have shown closely and helically packed PNCs on the dried helices and much more loosely organized PNCs on helices in suspension. Simulations based on the coupled dipole method (CDM) demonstrate that the CD comes from the dipolar interaction between PNC assembled into a chiral structure and the CD decreases with the interparticle distance.

Engineering of chiral nanomaterials for biomimetic catalysis

Chiral nanomaterial-based biomimetic catalysts can trigger a similar biological effect to natural catalysts and exhibit high performance in biological applications. Especially, their active center similarity and substrate selectivity promoted their superior biocatalytic activity. Here, modification of critical elements, such as size, morphology, nanocrystal facets, chiral surface and active sites, for controlling the catalytic efficiency of individual chiral nanoparticles (NPs) and chiral nanoassemblies has been demonstrated, which had a synergistic effect on overcoming the defects of pre-existing nanocatalysts. Noticeably, application of external forces (light or magnetism) has resulted in obvious enhancement in biocatalytic efficiency. Chiral nanomaterials served as preferable biomimetic nanocatalysts due to their special structural configuration and chemical constitution advantages. Furthermore, the current challenges and future research directions of the preparation of high-performance bioinspired chiral nanomaterials for biological applications are discussed.

Chiral nanomaterial-based biomimetic catalysts can trigger a similar biological effect to natural catalysts and exhibit high performance in biological applications.

Enantiomeric Control of Intrinsically Chiral Nanocrystals

The chiral aspect of inorganic crystals that crystallize in chiral space groups has been largely ignored until recently, partly due to difficulties in characterizing the chiroptical properties of bulk crystals, and also due to the difficulty in separating (sub)micrometer-scale chiral crystal enantiomers. In recent years, the colloidal synthesis of intrinsically chiral nanocrystals (NCs) of several chiral inorganic compounds with significant enantiomeric excess has been demonstrated. This is achieved through the use of chiral molecular ligands, which bind to the atomic/ionic components of the crystals, preferentially forming one crystal enantiomorph. Here, recent progress on several aspects of these NCs is described, including the connection between ligand structure and its ability to direct NC handedness, chiral amplification in the synthesis leading to enantiopure NC samples, spontaneous symmetry breaking, the formation of NCs with chiral shapes, the connection between lattice and shape chirality and mixed contributions of atomic-scale and shape chirality to the chiroptical properties.

Chiral Surface and Geometry of Metal Nanocrystals

Chirality is a basic property of nature and has great importance in photonics, biochemistry, medicine, and catalysis. This importance has led to the emergence of the chiral inorganic nanostructure field in the last two decades, providing opportunities to control the chirality of light and biochemical reactions. While the facile production of 3D nanostructures has remained a major challenge, recent advances in nanocrystal synthesis have provided a new pathway for efficient control of chirality at the nanoscale by transferring molecular chirality to the geometry of nanocrystals. Interestingly, this discovery stems from a purely crystallographic outcome: chirality can be generated on high-Miller-index surfaces, even for highly symmetric metal crystals. This is the starting point herein, with an overview of the scientific history and a summary of the crystallographic definition. With the advance of nanomaterial synthesis technology, high-Miller-index planes can be selectively exposed on metallic nanoparticles. The enantioselective interaction of chiral molecules and high-Miller-index facets can break the mirror symmetry of the metal nanocrystals. Herein, the fundamental principle of chirality evolution is emphasized and it is shown how chiral surfaces can be directly correlated with chiral morphologies, thus serving as a guide for researchers in chiral catalysts, chiral plasmonics, chiral metamaterials, and photonic devices.

Plasmonic Chirality and Circular Dichroism in Bioassembled and Nonbiological Systems: Theoretical Background and Recent Progress

Nature is chiral, thus chirality is a key concept required to understand a multitude of systems in physics, chemistry, and biology. The field of optics offers valuable tools to probe the chirality of nanosystems, including the measurement of circular dichroism, the differential interaction strength between matter and circularly polarized light with opposite helicity. Simultaneously, the use of plasmonic systems with giant light-interaction cross-sections opens new paths to investigate and manipulate systems on the nanoscale. Consequently, the interest in chiral plasmonic and hybrid systems has continually grown in recent years, due to their potential applications in biosensing, polarization-encoded optical communication, polarization-selective chemical reactions, and materials with polarization-dependent light-matter interaction. Experimentally, chiral properties of nanostructures can be either created artificially using modern fabrication techniques involving inorganic materials, or borrowed from nature using bioassembly or biomolecular templating. Herein, the recent progress in the field of plasmonic chirality is summarized, with a focus on both the theoretical background and the experimental advances in the study of chirality in various systems, including molecular-plasmonic assemblies, chiral plasmonic nanostructures, chiral assemblies of interacting plasmonic nanoparticles, and chiral metal metasurfaces and metamaterials. The growth prospects of this field are also discussed.

Chiral Surface and Geometry of Metal Nanocrystals

Chirality is a basic property of nature and has great importance in photonics, biochemistry, medicine, and catalysis. This importance has led to the emergence of the chiral inorganic nanostructure field in the last two decades, providing opportunities to control the chirality of light and biochemical reactions. While the facile production of 3D nanostructures has remained a major challenge, recent advances in nanocrystal synthesis have provided a new pathway for efficient control of chirality at the nanoscale by transferring molecular chirality to the geometry of nanocrystals. Interestingly, this discovery stems from a purely crystallographic outcome: chirality can be generated on high-Miller-index surfaces, even for highly symmetric metal crystals. This is the starting point herein, with an overview of the scientific history and a summary of the crystallographic definition. With the advance of nanomaterial synthesis technology, high-Miller-index planes can be selectively exposed on metallic nanoparticles. The enantioselective interaction of chiral molecules and high-Miller-index facets can break the mirror symmetry of the metal nanocrystals. Herein, the fundamental principle of chirality evolution is emphasized and it is shown how chiral surfaces can be directly correlated with chiral morphologies, thus serving as a guide for researchers in chiral catalysts, chiral plasmonics, chiral metamaterials, and photonic devices.

Fluorescence and Optical Activity of Chiral CdTe Quantum Dots in Their Interaction with Amino Acids

Ligand-induced chirality in semiconducting nanocrystals has been the subject of extensive study in the past few years and shows potential applications in optics and biology. Yet, the origin of the chiroptical effect in semiconductor nanoparticles is still not fully understood. Here, we examine the effect of the interaction with amino acids on both the fluorescence and the optical activity of chiral semiconductor quantum dots (QDs). A significant fluorescence enhancement is observed for l/d-Cys-CdTe QDs upon interaction with all the tested amino acids, indicating suppression of nonradiative pathways as well as the passivation of surface trap sites brought via the interaction of the amino group with the CdTe QDs' surface. Heterochiral amino acids are shown to weaken the circular dichroism (CD) signal, which may be attributed to a different binding configuration of cysteine molecules on the QDs' surface. Furthermore, a red shift of both CD and fluorescence signals in l/d-Cys-CdTe QDs is only observed upon adding cysteine, while other tested amino acids do not exhibit such an effect. We speculate that the thiol group induces orbital hybridization of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMOs) of cysteine and the valence band of CdTe QDs, leading to the decrease of the energy band gap and a concomitant red shift of CD and fluorescence spectra. This is further verified by density functional theory calculations. Both the experimental and theoretical findings indicate that the addition of ligands that do not "directly" interact with the valence band (VB) of the QD (noncysteine moieties) changes the QD photophysical properties, as it probably modifies the way cysteine is bound to the surface. Hence, we conclude that it is not only the chemistry of the amino acid ligand that affects both CD and PL but also the exact geometry of binding that modifies these properties. Understanding the relationship between the QD's surface and chiral amino acid thus provides an additional perspective on the fundamental origin of induced chiroptical effects in semiconductor nanoparticles, potentially enabling us to optimize the design of chiral semiconductor QDs for chiroptic applications.

Light-Induced Chiral Iron Copper Selenide Nanoparticles Prevent β-Amyloidopathy In Vivo

The accumulation and deposition of β-amyloid (Aβ) plaques in the brain is considered a potential pathogenic mechanism underlying Alzheimer's disease (AD). Chiral l/d-Fe_x Cu_y Se nanoparticles (NPs) were fabricated that interfer with the self-assembly of Aβ42 monomers and trigger the Aβ42 fibrils in dense structures to become looser monomers under 808 nm near-infrared (NIR) illumination. d-Fe_x Cu_y Se NPs have a much higher affinity for Aβ42 fibrils than l-Fe_x Cu_y Se NPs and chiral Cu_2-x Se NPs. The chiral Fe_x Cu_y Se NPs also generate more reactive oxygen species (ROS) than chiral Cu_2-x Se NPs under NIR-light irradiation. In living MN9D cells, d-NPs attenuate the adhesion of Aβ42 to membranes and neuron loss after NIR treatment within 10 min without the photothermal effect. In-vivo experiments showed that d-Fe_x Cu_y Se NPs provide an efficient protection against neuronal damage induced by the deposition of Aβ42 and alleviate symptoms in a mouse model of AD, leading to the recovery of cognitive competence.

Cysteine-encoded chirality evolution in plasmonic rhombic dodecahedral gold nanoparticles

Chiral plasmonic nanostructures have opened up unprecedented opportunities in optical applications. We present chirality evolution in nanoparticles focusing on the crystallographic aspects and elucidate key parameters for chiral structure formation. From a detailed understanding of chirality formation, we achieved a morphology (432 Helicoid IV) of three-dimensionally controlled chiral plasmonic nanoparticles based on the rhombic dodecahedral shape. The role of the synthesis parameters, seed, cysteine, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide and ascorbic acid on chiral formation are studied, and based on this understanding, the systematic control of the chiral structure is presented. The relation between the modulated chiral structure factors and optical response is further elucidated by electromagnetic simulation. Importantly, a new optical response is achieved by assembling chiral nanoparticles into a film. This comprehensive study of chiral nanoparticles will provide valuable insight for the further development of diverse chiral plasmonic nanostructures with fascinating properties.

Chirality of amino acids can be transferred to the high index plane of gold nanoparticles, resulting in chiral plasmonic nanoparticles called the 432 Helicoid series. Here, the authors present a 432 Helicoid IV and describe a systematic approach to modulate the chirality of single particles by controlling the kinetics.

Bioinspired Toolkit Based on Intermolecular Encoder toward Evolutionary 4D Chiral Plasmonic Materials

Over the last two decades, nanophotonics, including plasmonics and metamaterials, have promised compelling opportunities for exotic control over light-matter interactions. The strong chiral light-matter interaction is a representative example. Three-dimensional (3D) chirality has existed naturally only in organic molecules and bio-organisms, but a negligible chiroptic effect was attained with these naturally occurring materials because of their small absorption cross sections. However, inspired by biological chirality, nanophotonic chiral materials have greatly expanded the design space of accessible chiroptic effects (e.g., pushing the chiral light-matter interaction to an exceptional regime, such as a broad-band circular polarizer, negative refractive index, and sensitive chiral sensing). Nevertheless, it is still a challenge to achieve precisely defined and dynamically reconfigurable chiral morphologies that further increase the chiroptic effect. Biological systems continue to inspire approaches to the design and synthesis of precisely defined 3D nanostructures. In particular, a living organism can program the evolutionary pathway of highly complexed 3D chiral morphology precisely from the molecular scale to the macroscopic scale while simultaneously enabling dynamic reconfiguration of their chirality. What if we could harness the power of biological selectivity and evolutionary capability in synthesizing chiral plasmonic materials? We envisioned that platform technology mimicking biological principles would enable control of 3D chiral structures for effective plasmonic interactions with polarized light and further impart the concept of time-dependent evolution (3D + 1D = 4D) to bring about responsive and dynamic changes in chiral plasmonics. In this Account, we review our efforts to develop the biomolecule-based synthesis of 3D chiral plasmonic materials and share the vision that as in biological systems, chirality can be programmed at the molecular level and hierarchically transferred at multiple scales to develop macroscopic chirality. Accompanied by a biomimetic time-dependent chirality of singular plasmonic nanometals, we also summarize recent achievements in the chemistry and nanophotonics communities pursuing 4D plasmonics that are closely related to our research. The biomimetic and bioinspired approaches discussed in this Account will provide new synthetic insights into implementing chiral nanomaterials and extend the range of accessible nanophotonic design. We hope that the molecular encoding approach will be useful to achieve dynamic light-matter interactions at unprecedented dimensions, time scales, and chirality.

Tailoring Chiroptical Activity of Iron Disulfide Quantum Dot Hydrogels with Circularly Polarized Light

Chiral inorganic nanomaterials have recently attracted significant attention because of their many important applications, such as in asymmetric catalysis and chiral sensing. Here, chiral iron disulfide quantum dots (FeS₂ QDs) are synthesized via chirality transfer using l/d-cysteine (Cys) as chiral ligands. The chiral FeS₂ QDs are coassembled with two gelators to produce a cogel (l- or d-[Gel+FeS₂ ]) with a g-factor value of ±0.06. Interestingly, the cogels display intense circularly polarized luminescence. More significantly, the degree of twisting (twist pitch) and the diameter of the cogels can be markedly regulated by illumination with circularly polarized light (CPL) in the ranges of 120-213 and 37-65 nm, respectively, which is caused by the CPL-induced electron transfer. This research opens the way for the design of chiroptical devices with a wide range of functions and applications.

Spontaneous and directed symmetry breaking in the formation of chiral nanocrystals

Symmetry plays a crucial part in our understanding of the natural world. Mirror symmetry breaking is of special interest as it is related to life as we know it. Studying systems which display chiral amplification, therefore, could further our understanding of symmetry breaking in chemical systems, in general, and thus also of the asymmetry in Nature. Here, we report on strong chiral amplification in the colloidal synthesis of intrinsically chiral lanthanide phosphate nanocrystals, measured via circularly polarized luminescence. The amplification involves spontaneous symmetry breaking into either left- or right-handed nanocrystals below a critical temperature. Furthermore, chiral tartaric acid molecules in the solution direct the amplified nanocrystal handedness through a discontinuous transition between left- and right-handed excess. We analyze the observations based on the statistical thermodynamics of critical phenomena. Our results demonstrate how chiral minerals with high enantiopurity can form in a racemic aqueous environment.