Imparting Stability to Chiral Helical Gold Nanoparticle Superstructures.

Realizing the promise of chiral inorganic nanomaterials hinges on improving their structural stability under various chemical and environmental conditions. Here, we examine the stability of 1-D gold nanoparticle (Au NP) single helices prepared using the amphiphilic peptide conjugate C-(PEP) (PEP = AYSSGAPPMPPF; = 16-22). We present a general template-independent strategy of tuning helix stability that relies on controlling the dimensions of constituent NPs. As NP dimensions increase, Au NP single helices become both more thermally stable and more stable in the presence of chemical denaturants and protein digestion agents (e.g., urea and proteinase K, respectively). We use this strategy for imparting helix stability to create colloidal suspensions of thermally robust Au NP single helices which maintain their plasmonic chiroptical activity up to ∼80 °C.