Centre d'Investigació en Nanociència i Nanotecnologia (ICN-CSIC), UAB Campus, E-08193 Bellaterra, Spain.
Phys Rev Lett. 2010 Sep 10;105(11):115702. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.115702.
We study the electronic mechanisms underlying the induction and propagation of chirality in achiral molecules deposited on surfaces. Combined scanning tunneling microscopy and ab initio electronic structure calculations of Cu-phthalocyanines adsorbed on Ag(100) reveal the formation of chiral molecular orbitals in structurally undistorted molecules. This effect shows that chirality can be manifest exclusively at the electronic level due to asymmetric charge transfer between molecules and substrate. Single molecule chirality correlates with attractive van der Waals interactions, leading to the propagation of chirality at the supramolecular level. Ostwald ripening provides an efficient pathway for complete symmetry breaking and self-assembly of homochiral supramolecular layers.
我们研究了在表面上沉积的手性分子中诱导和传播手性的电子机制。通过对吸附在 Ag(100)上的铜酞菁的扫描隧道显微镜和从头算电子结构计算的结合，揭示了在结构未变形的分子中形成手性分子轨道。这种效应表明，由于分子和衬底之间的不对称电荷转移，手性可以仅在电子水平上表现出来。单个分子的手性与吸引力的范德华相互作用相关，导致在超分子水平上传播手性。奥斯特瓦尔德熟化提供了一种有效的途径，用于完全打破对称性和同手性超分子层的自组装。
