Dipartimento di Fisica and CNISM, Via Dodecaneso 33, Genova, I16146, Italy.
Nano Lett. 2010 Oct 13;10(10):4211-6. doi: 10.1021/nl102588p.
A class of nanomaterials possessing the highest degree of chiral symmetry, the chiral icosahedral symmetry, is found by a combination of global optimization searches and first-principle calculations. These nanomaterials are core-shell nanoalloys with a Cu, Ni, or Co core and a chiral Ag or Au shell of monatomic thickness. The chiral shell is obtained by a transformation of an anti-Mackay icosahedral shell by a concerted rotation of triangular atomic islands which breaks all mirror symmetries. This transformation becomes energetically favorable as the cluster size increases. Other chiral nanoalloys, belonging to a different structural family of C(5) group symmetry, are found in the size range between 100 and 200 atoms. High-symmetry chiral nanoalloys associate strong energetic stability with potential for applications in optics, catalysis, and magnetism.
一类具有最高手性对称性——手性二十面体对称性的纳米材料，是通过全局优化搜索和第一性原理计算相结合发现的。这些纳米材料是具有核壳结构的纳米合金，内核为 Cu、Ni 或 Co，外壳为单原子厚度的手性 Ag 或 Au。手性壳是通过三角原子岛的协同旋转对反 Mackay 二十面体壳的转变而获得的，这种转变打破了所有的镜像对称。随着团簇尺寸的增加，这种转变变得更加有利。在 100 到 200 个原子的尺寸范围内，还发现了属于 C(5)群对称性不同结构家族的其他手性纳米合金。高对称手性纳米合金具有很强的能量稳定性，有望在光学、催化和磁性领域得到应用。
