Circularly Polarized Light Triggers Biosensing Based on Chiral Assemblies.

Chiral assemblies have attracted great interest because of their many potential applications, such as in chiral sensing, asymmetric catalysis, and optical devices. Here, by using specific DNAzymes, a chiral core-satellite assembly consisting of a DNAzyme-driven spiny nanorod dimer core and upconversion nanoparticle (UCNP) satellite was constructed. The chirality of this assembly originates from the geometry chirality. This chiral assembly can be used as a photothermally activated probe for the simultaneous detection of multiple analytes in living cells. Under illumination with 980 nm left circularly polarized (LCP) light, this probe was used to quantify and visualize intracellular metal ions.