Transforming Silver Nanoclusters from Racemic to Homochiral via Seeded Crystallization

Key Words:ASYMMETRIC AUTOCATALYSIS; CLUSTER; NANOPARTICLES; SUBSTITUTION; ENANTIOMERS; CHIRALITY; ORIGIN

Abstract:Chirality has risen as an attractive topic in materialsresearchin recent years, but the attainment of enantiopure materials remainsa major challenge. Herein, we obtained homochiral nanoclusters bya recrystallization strategy, without any chiral factors (i.e., chiralligands, counterions, etc.). Through the rapid flipping of configurationof silver nanoclusters in solution, the initial racemic Ag ( 40 ) (triclinic) nanoclusters are convertedto homochiral (orthorhombic) as revealed by X-ray crystallography.In the seeded crystallization, one homochiral Ag ( 40 ) crystal is used as a seed to direct the growthof crystals with specific chirality. Furthermore, enantiopure Ag ( 40 ) nanoclusters can be used as amplifiersfor the detection of chiral carboxylic drugs. This work not only provideschiral conversion and amplification strategies to obtain homochiralnanoclusters but also explains the chirality origin of nanoclustersat the molecular level.

Volume:14

Issue:22

Translation or Not:no