Zhou Jiayi, Gao Yuzhe, Zhang Deyi, Ren Kexin, Dai Mengqi, Wang Huan, Qi Limin
Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS), College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China.
Nat Commun. 2025 Jul 26;16(1):6897. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-62165-3.
Chiral plasmonic nanomaterials have attracted significant attention due to their fascinating chiroptical properties and promising applications including chiral sensing, asymmetric catalysis, biomedicine, and chiroptics. Self-assembly of plasmonic nanoparticles is promising for constructing chiroplasmonic nanomaterials, but it remains challenging to obtain homochiral assemblies with high optical asymmetry. Here, gold nanodumbbells featuring a concave morphology are employed as achiral building blocks for controllable self-assembly into stable homochiral assemblies exhibiting strong chiroptical activity. The formation of helically stacked side-by-side assemblies with right handedness is triggered by introducing bovine serum albumin as the chiral additive. Remarkably, an asymmetry factor as high as 0.23 is obtained for the chiral assemblies. It is revealed that the concavity of the nanodumbbells considerably enhances the chirality and stability of the assemblies. Furthermore, the chiral assemblies are utilized as hosts for achiral fluorescent species to generate circular polarization luminescence. This work may advance the structural design of building blocks for chiral assembly toward novel chiroplasmonic nanomaterials.
手性等离子体纳米材料因其迷人的手性光学性质以及在手性传感、不对称催化、生物医学和手性光学等方面的应用前景而备受关注。等离子体纳米粒子的自组装有望用于构建手性等离子体纳米材料，但获得具有高光不对称性的纯手性组装体仍然具有挑战性。在此，具有凹形形态的金纳米哑铃被用作非手性构建块，用于可控自组装成表现出强手性光学活性的稳定纯手性组装体。通过引入牛血清白蛋白作为手性添加剂，触发了右手螺旋并排组装体的形成。值得注意的是，手性组装体的不对称因子高达0.23。研究表明，纳米哑铃的凹度显著增强了组装体的手性和稳定性。此外，手性组装体被用作非手性荧光物质的主体以产生圆偏振发光。这项工作可能会推动用于手性组装的构建块的结构设计，以制备新型手性等离子体纳米材料。
