Yang Chen, Hu Weilin, Guo Xuefeng
Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, National Biomedical Imaging Center, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, 292 Chengfu Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100871, People's Republic of China.
Center of Single-Molecule Sciences, Institute of Modern Optics, Frontiers Science Center for New Organic Matter, College of Electronic Information and Optical Engineering, Nankai University, 38 Tongyan Road, Jinnan District, Tianjin, 300350, People's Republic of China.
Nanomicro Lett. 2023 Sep 12;15(1):211. doi: 10.1007/s40820-023-01184-5.
Chirality, as the symmetric breaking of molecules, plays an essential role in physical, chemical and especially biological processes, which highlights the accurate distinction among heterochiralities as well as the precise preparation for homochirality. To this end, the well-designed structure-specific recognizer and catalysis reactor are necessitated, respectively. However, each kind of target molecules requires a custom-made chiral partner and the dynamic disorder of spatial-orientation distribution of molecules at the ensemble level leads to an inefficient protocol. In this perspective article, we developed a universal strategy capable of realizing the chirality detection and control by the external symmetry breaking based on the alignment of the molecular frame to external stimuli. Specifically, in combination with the discussion about the relationship among the chirality (molecule), spin (electron) and polarization (photon), i.e., the three natural symmetry breaking, single-molecule junctions were proposed to achieve a single-molecule/event-resolved detection and synthesis. The fixation of the molecular orientation and the CMOS-compatibility provide an efficient interface to achieve the external input of symmetry breaking. This perspective is believed to offer more efficient applications in accurate chirality detection and precise asymmetric synthesis via the close collaboration of chemists, physicists, materials scientists, and engineers.
手性作为分子的对称破缺，在物理、化学尤其是生物过程中起着至关重要的作用，这凸显了对异手性的准确区分以及对同手性的精确制备。为此，分别需要精心设计的结构特异性识别器和催化反应器。然而，每种目标分子都需要定制的手性伙伴，并且分子在整体水平上空间取向分布的动态无序导致协议效率低下。在这篇观点文章中，我们基于分子框架与外部刺激的对齐，开发了一种能够通过外部对称破缺实现手性检测和控制的通用策略。具体而言，结合对手性（分子）、自旋（电子）和极化（光子）之间关系的讨论，即三种自然对称破缺，提出了单分子结以实现单分子/事件分辨的检测和合成。分子取向的固定以及与互补金属氧化物半导体（CMOS）的兼容性提供了一个有效的接口，以实现对称破缺的外部输入。通过化学家、物理学家、材料科学家和工程师的紧密合作，这一观点有望在精确的手性检测和精确的不对称合成中提供更高效的应用。
