Chiral Templating of Self-Assembling Nanostructures With Circularly Polarized Light

Chiral Templating of Self-Assembling Nanostructures with Circularly Polarized Light

Jihyeon Yeom, Nicholas A. Kotov

ABSTRACT: Chirality is a typical property for natural compounds such as DNA, RNA and proteins existing predominantly as levorotatory enantiomers. However, enantiomeric preference for artificial inorganic nanomaterials was difficult to control without the use of templates based on biological compounds. The fabrication of complex nanostructures with spatial and sequential assembly of desired components via the self-assembly approach requires directed control of system properties. One potential route to this capability is the incorporation of self-assembly induced and controlled by light. Here we show that racemic cadmium telluride nanoparticles (CdTe NPs) selectively self-assemble into chiral nanoribbons under circularly polarized light illuminations. Depending on the helical directions of laser, different light adsorption is induced in CdTe NPs which lead to greater reactivity of a certain chirality. Chiral twisted nanowires can open the door to chiooptical devices including display technologies, physiological properties and pharmacological effects using polarized light.