Graph Theoretical Description of Phase Transitions in Complex Multiscale Phases with Supramolecular Assemblies.

Phase transitions are typically quantified using order parameters, such as crystal lattice distances and radial distribution functions, which can identify subtle changes in crystalline materials or high-contrast phases with large structural differences. However, the identification of phases with high complexity, multiscale organization and of complex patterns during the structural fluctuations preceding phase transitions, which are essential for understanding the system pathways between phases, is challenging for those traditional analyses. Here, it is shown that for two model systems- thermotropic liquid crystals and a lyotropic water/surfactant mixtures-graph theoretical (GT) descriptors can successfully identify complex phases combining molecular and nanoscale levels of organization that are hard to characterize with traditional methodologies. Furthermore, the GT descriptors also reveal the pathways between the different phases. Specifically, centrality parameters and node-based fractal dimension quantify the system behavior preceding the transitions, capturing fluctuation-induced breakup of aggregates and their long-range cooperative interactions. GT parameterization can be generalized for a wide range of chemical systems and be instrumental for the growth mechanisms of complex nanostructures.

Graph-theoretical chirality measure and chirality-property relations for chemical structures with multiscale mirror asymmetries.

Chirality is an essential geometric property unifying small molecules, biological macromolecules, inorganic nanomaterials, biological microparticles, and many other chemical structures. Numerous chirality measures have attempted to quantify this geometric property of mirror asymmetry and to correlate these measures with physical and chemical properties. However, their utility has been widely limited because these correlations have been largely notional. Furthermore, chirality measures also require prohibitively demanding computations, especially for chiral structures comprised of thousands of atoms. Acknowledging the fundamental problems with quantification of mirror asymmetry, including the ambiguity of sign-variable pseudoscalar chirality measures, we revisit this subject because of the significance of quantifying chirality for quantitative biomimetics and describing the chirality of nanoscale materials that display chirality continuum and scale-dependent mirror asymmetry. We apply the concept of torsion within the framework of differential geometry to the graph theoretical representation of chiral molecules and nanostructures to address some of the fundamental problems and practical limitations of other chirality measures. Chiral gold clusters and other chiral structures are used as models to elaborate a graph-theoretical chirality (GTC) measure, demonstrating its applicability to chiral materials with different degrees of chirality at different scales. For specific cases, we show that GTC provides an adequate description of both the sign and magnitude of mirror asymmetry. The direct correlations with macroscopic properties, such as chiroptical spectra, are enhanced by using the hybrid chirality measures combining parameters from discrete mathematics and physics. Taking molecular helices as an example, we established a direct relation between GTC and optical activity, indicating that this chirality measure can be applied to chiral metamaterials and complex chiral constructs.

Chiral Kirigami for Bend-Tolerant Reconfigurable Hologram with Continuously Variable Chirality Measures.

Despite the commonality of static holograms, the holography with multiple information layers and reconfigurable grey-scale images at communication frequencies remain a confluence of scientific challenges. One well-known difficulty is the simultaneous modulation of phase and amplitude of electromagnetic wavefronts with a high modulation depth. A less appreciated challenge is scrambling of the information and images with hologram bending. Here, this work shows that chirality-guided pixelation of plasmonic kirigami sheets enables tunable multiplexed holography at terahertz (THz) frequencies. The convex and concave structures with slanted Au strips exhibit gradual variations in geometries facilitating modulation of light ellipticity reaching 40 deg. Real-time switching of 3D images of the letter "M" and the Mona Lisa demonstrates the possibility of complex grey-scale information content and importance of continuously variable mirror asymmetry. Microscale chirality measures of each pixel experiences little change with bending while retaining controllable reconfigurability upon stretching, which translates to remarkable resilience of chiral holograms to bending. Simplicity of their design with local chirality measures opens the door to information technologies with fault-tolerant THz encryption, wearable holographic devices, and new communication technologies.

Nano-achiral complex composites for extreme polarization optics.

Composites from 2D nanomaterials show uniquely high electrical, thermal and mechanical properties1,2. Pairing their robustness with polarization rotation is needed for hyperspectral optics in extreme conditions3,4. However, the rigid nanoplatelets have randomized achiral shapes, which scramble the circular polarization of photons with comparable wavelengths. Here we show that multilayer nanocomposites from 2D nanomaterials with complex textured surfaces strongly and controllably rotate light polarization, despite being nano-achiral and partially disordered. The intense circular dichroism (CD) in nanocomposite films originates from the diagonal patterns of wrinkles, grooves or ridges, leading to an angular offset between axes of linear birefringence (LB) and linear dichroism (LD). Stratification of the layer-by-layer (LBL) assembled nanocomposites affords precise engineering of the polarization-active materials from imprecise nanoplatelets with an optical asymmetry g-factor of 1.0, exceeding those of typical nanomaterials by about 500 times. High thermal resilience of the composite optics enables operating temperature as high as 250 °C and imaging of hot emitters in the near-infrared (NIR) part of the spectrum. Combining LBL engineered nanocomposites with achiral dyes results in anisotropic factors for circularly polarized emission approaching the theoretical limit. The generality of the observed phenomena is demonstrated by nanocomposite polarizers from molybdenum sulfide (MoS2), MXene and graphene oxide (GO) and by two manufacturing methods. A large family of LBL optical nanocomponents can be computationally designed and additively engineered for ruggedized optics.

Circular Polarization-Resolved Raman Optical Activity: A Perspective on Chiral Spectroscopies of Vibrational States.

Circular polarization-resolved Raman scattering methods include Raman optical activity (ROA) and its derivative─surface-enhanced Raman optical activity (SEROA). These spectroscopic modalities are rapidly developing due to their high information content, stand-off capabilities, and rapid development of Raman-active chiral nanostructures. These methods enable a direct readout of the vibrational energy levels of chiral molecules, crystals, and nanostructured materials, making it possible to study complex interactions and the dynamic interfaces between them. They were shown to be particularly valuable for nano- and biotechnological fields encompassing complex particles with nanoscale chirality that combine strong scattering and intense polarization rotation. This perspective dives into recent advancements in ROA and SEROA, their distinction from surface-enhanced Raman scattering, and the potential of these information-rich label-free spectroscopies for the detection of chiral biomolecules.

Tapered chiral nanoparticles as broad-spectrum thermally stable antivirals for SARS-CoV-2 variants.

The incessant mutations of viruses, variable immune responses, and likely emergence of new viral threats necessitate multiple approaches to novel antiviral therapeutics. Furthermore, the new antiviral agents should have broad-spectrum activity and be environmentally stable. Here, we show that biocompatible tapered CuS nanoparticles (NPs) efficiently agglutinate coronaviruses with binding affinity dependent on the chirality of surface ligands and particle shape. L-penicillamine-stabilized NPs with left-handed curved apexes display half-maximal inhibitory concentrations (IC50) as low as 0.66 pM (1.4 ng/mL) and 0.57 pM (1.2 ng/mL) for pseudo-type SARS-CoV-2 viruses and wild-type Wuhan-1 SARS-CoV-2 viruses, respectively, which are about 1,100 times lower than those for antibodies (0.73 nM). Benefiting from strong NPs-protein interactions, the same particles are also effective against other strains of coronaviruses, such as HCoV-HKU1, HCoV-OC43, HCoV-NL63, and SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variants with IC50 values below 10 pM (21.8 ng/mL). Considering rapid response to outbreaks, exposure to elevated temperatures causes no change in the antiviral activity of NPs while antibodies are completely deactivated. Testing in mice indicates that the chirality-optimized NPs can serve as thermally stable analogs of antiviral biologics complementing the current spectrum of treatments.

Direct-write 3D printing of plasmonic nanohelicoids by circularly polarized light.

Chiral plasmonic surfaces with 3D "forests" from nanohelicoids should provide strong optical rotation due to alignment of helical axis with propagation vector of photons. However, such three-dimensional nanostructures also demand multi-step nanofabrication, which is incompatible with many substrates. Large-scale photonic patterns on polymeric and flexible substrates remain unattainable. Here, we demonstrate the substrate-tolerant direct-write printing and patterning of silver nanohelicoids with out-of-plane 3D orientation using circularly polarized light. Centimeter-scale chiral plasmonic surfaces can be produced within minutes using inexpensive medium-power lasers. The growth of nanohelicoids is driven by the symmetry-broken site-selective deposition and self-assembly of the silver nanoparticles (NPs). The ellipticity and wavelength of the incident photons control the local handedness and size of the printed nanohelicoids, which enables on-the-fly modulation of nanohelicoid chirality during direct writing and simple pathways to complex multifunctional metasurfaces. Processing simplicity, high polarization rotation, and fine spatial resolution of the light-driven printing of stand-up helicoids provide a rapid pathway to chiral plasmonic surfaces, accelerating the development of chiral photonics for health and information technologies.

Temperature Dependence of Charge Transport Properties of Quasi-2D Chiral Perovskite Thin-Film Field-Effect Transistors.

Chiral halide perovskite materials promise both superior light response and the capability to distinguish circularly polarized emissions, which are especially common in the fluorescence spectra of organic chiral materials. Herein, thin-film field-effect transistors (FETs) based on chiral quasi-two-dimensional perovskites are explored, and the temperature dependence of the charge carrier transport mechanism over the broad temperature range (80-300 K) is revealed. A typical p-type charge transport behavior is observed for both left-handed (S-C6H5(CN2)2NH3)2(CH3NH3)n-1PbnI3n+1 and right-handed (R-C6H5(CN2)2NH3)2(CH3NH3)n-1PbnI3n+1 chiral perovskites, with maximum carrier mobilities of 1.7 × 10-5 cm2 V-1 s-1 and 2.5 × 10-5 cm2 V-1 s-1 at around 280 K, respectively. The shallow traps with smaller activation energy (0.03 eV) hinder the carrier transport over the lower temperature regime (80-180 K), while deep traps with 1 order of magnitude larger activation energy than the shallow traps moderate the charge carrier transport in the temperature range of 180-300 K. From the charge carrier mechanism point of view, impurity scattering is established as the dominant factor from 80 K until around 280 K, while phonon scattering becomes predominant up to room temperature. Responsivities of 0.15 A W-1 and 0.14 A W-1 for left-handed and right-handed chiral perovskite FET devices are obtained.

Complex Materials with Stochastic Structural Patterns: Spiky Colloids with Enhanced Charge Storage Capacity.

Self-assembled materials with complex nanoscale and mesoscale architecture attract considerable attention in energy and sustainability technologies. Their high performance can be attributed to high surface area, quantum effects, and hierarchical organization. Delineation of these contributions is, however, difficult because complex materials display stochastic structural patterns combining both order and disorder, which is difficult to be consistently reproduced yet being important for materials' functionality. Their compositional variability make systematic studies even harder. Here, a model system of FeSe2 "hedgehog" particles (HPs) was selected  to gain insight into the mechanisms of charge storage n complex nanostructured materials common for batteries and supercapacitors. Specifically, HPs represent self-assembled biomimetic nanomaterials with a medium level of complexity; they display an organizational pattern of spiky colloids with considerable disorder yet non-random; this patternt is consistently reproduced from particle to particle. . It was found that HPs can accommodate ≈70× greater charge density than spheroidal nano- and microparticles. Besides expanded surface area, the enhanced charge storage capacity was enabled by improved hole transport and reversible atomic conformations of FeSe2 layers in the blade-like spikes associated with the rotatory motion of the Se atoms around Fe center. The dispersibility of HPs also enables their easy integration into energy storage devices. HPs quadruple stored electrochemical energy and double the storage modulus of structural supercapacitors.

Hybrid Vesicles Enable Mechano-Responsive Hydrogel Degradation.

Stimuli-responsive hydrogels are intriguing biomimetic materials. Previous efforts to develop mechano-responsive hydrogels have mostly relied on chemical modifications of the hydrogel structures. Here, we present a simple, generalizable strategy that confers mechano-responsive behavior on hydrogels. Our approach involves embedding hybrid vesicles, composed of phospholipids and amphiphilic block copolymers, within the hydrogel matrix to act as signal transducers. Under mechanical stress, these vesicles undergo deformation and rupture, releasing encapsulated compounds that can control the hydrogel network. To demonstrate this concept, we embedded vesicles containing ethylene glycol tetraacetic acid (EGTA), a calcium chelator, into a calcium-crosslinked alginate hydrogel. When compressed, the released EGTA sequesters calcium ions and degrades the hydrogel. This study provides a novel method for engineering mechano-responsive hydrogels that may be useful in various biomedical applications.

Chiral Spectroscopy of Nanostructures.

ConspectusChirality is ubiquitous in the universe and in living creatures over detectable length scales from the subatomic to the galactic, as exemplified in the two extremes by subatomic particles (neutrinos) and spiral galaxies. Between them are living creatures that display multiple levels of chirality emerging from hierarchically assembled asymmetric building blocks. Not too far from the bottom of this pyramid are the foundational building blocks with chiral atomic centers on sp3 carbon atoms exemplified by l-amino acids and d-sugars that are self-assembled into higher-order structures with increasing dimensions forming highly complex, amazingly functional, and energy-efficient living systems. The organization and materials employed in their construction inspired scientists to replicate complex living systems via the self-assembly of chiral components. Multiple studies pointed to unexpected and unique electromagnetic properties of chiral structures with nanoscale and microscale dimensions, including giant circular dichroism and collective circularly polarized scattering that their constituent units did not possess.To address the wide variety of chiral geometries observed in continuous materials, singular particles, and their complex systems, multiple analytic techniques are needed. Simultaneously, their spectroscopic properties create a pathway to multiple applications. For example, mirror-asymmetric vibrations at chiral centers formed by sp3 carbon atoms lead to optical activity for the infrared (IR) wavelength regions. At the same time, understanding the optical activity in, for example, the IR region enables biomedical applications because multiple modalities of biomedical imaging and vibrational optical activity (VOA) of biomolecules are known for IR range. In turn, VOA can be realized in both absorption and emission modalities due to large magnetic transition moments, as vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) or Raman optical activity (ROA) spectroscopy. In addition to the VOA, in the range of longer wavelengths, lattice vibrational mode or phononic behavior occurs in chiral crystals and nanoassemblies, which can be readily detected by terahertz circular dichroism (TCD) spectroscopy. Meanwhile, chiral self-assembly can induce circularly polarized light emission (CPLE) regardless of the existence of chirality in coassembled fluorophores. The CPLE from self-assembled chiral materials is particularly interesting because the CPLE can originate from both circularly polarized luminescence and circularly polarized scattering (CPS). Furthermore, because self-assembled nanostructures often exhibit stronger optical activity than their building blocks owing to dimension and resonance effects, the optical activity of single assembled nanostructures can be investigated by using microscopic technology combined with chiral optics. Here, we describe the state of the art for spectroscopic methods for the comprehensive analysis of chiral nanomaterials at various photon wavelengths, addressed with special attention given to new tools emerging both for materials with self-organized hierarchical chirality and single-particle spectroscopy.

Enantiomeric discrimination by chiral electromagnetic resonance enhancement.

Circularly polarized light interacts preferentially with the biomolecules to generate spectral fingerprints reflecting their primary and secondary structure in the ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum. The spectral features can be transferred to the visible and near-infrared regions by coupling the biomolecules with plasmonic assemblies made of noble metals. Nanoscale gold tetrahelices were used to detect the presence of chiral objects that are 40 times smaller in size by using plane-polarized light of 550 nm wavelength. The emergence of chiral hotspots in the gaps between 80 nm long tetrahelices differentiate between weakly scattering S- vs R-molecules with optical constants similar to that of organic solvents. Simulations map the spatial distribution of the scattered field to reveal enantiomeric discrimination with selectivity up to 0.54.

Helical polymers for dissymmetric circularly polarized light imaging.

Control of the spin angular momentum (SAM) carried in a photon provides a technologically attractive element for next-generation quantum networks and spintronics1-5. However, the weak optical activity and inhomogeneity of thin films from chiral molecular crystals result in high noise and uncertainty in SAM detection. Brittleness of thin molecular crystals represents a further problem for device integration and practical realization of chiroptical quantum devices6-10. Despite considerable successes with highly dissymmetric optical materials based on chiral nanostructures11-13, the problem of integration of nanochiral materials with optical device platforms remains acute14-16. Here we report a simple yet powerful method to fabricate chiroptical flexible layers via supramolecular helical ordering of conjugated polymer chains. Their multiscale chirality and optical activity can be varied across the broad spectral range by chiral templating with volatile enantiomers. After template removal, chromophores remain stacked in one-dimensional helical nanofibrils producing a homogeneous chiroptical layer with drastically enhanced polarization-dependent absorbance, leading to well-resolved detection and visualization of SAM. This study provides a direct path to scalable realization of on-chip detection of the spin degree of freedom of photons necessary for encoded quantum information processing and high-resolution polarization imaging.

Chirality Analysis of Complex Microparticles using Deep Learning on Realistic Sets of Microscopy Images.

Nanoscale chirality is an actively growing research field spurred by the giant chiroptical activity, enantioselective biological activity, and asymmetric catalytic activity of chiral nanostructures. Compared to chiral molecules, the handedness of chiral nano- and microstructures can be directly established via electron microscopy, which can be utilized for the automatic analysis of chiral nanostructures and prediction of their properties. However, chirality in complex materials may have multiple geometric forms and scales. Computational identification of chirality from electron microscopy images rather than optical measurements is convenient but is fundamentally challenging, too, because (1) image features differentiating left- and right-handed particles can be ambiguous and (2) three-dimensional structure essential for chirality is 'flattened' into two-dimensional projections. Here, we show that deep learning algorithms can identify twisted bowtie-shaped microparticles with nearly 100% accuracy and classify them as left- and right-handed with as high as 99% accuracy. Importantly, such accuracy was achieved with as few as 30 original electron microscopy images of bowties. Furthermore, after training on bowtie particles with complex nanostructured features, the model can recognize other chiral shapes with different geometries without retraining for their specific chiral geometry with 93% accuracy, indicating the true learning abilities of the employed neural networks. These findings indicate that our algorithm trained on a practically feasible set of experimental data enables automated analysis of microscopy data for the accelerated discovery of chiral particles and their complex systems for multiple applications.

Self-Organization of Iron Sulfide Nanoparticles into Complex Multicompartment Supraparticles.

Self-assembled compartments from nanoscale components are found in all life forms. Their characteristic dimensions are in 50-1000 nm scale, typically assembled from a variety of bioorganic "building blocks". Among the various functions that these mesoscale compartments carry out, protection of the content from the environment is central. Finding synthetic pathways to similarly complex and functional particles from technologically friendly inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) is needed for a multitude of biomedical, biochemical, and biotechnological processes. Here, it is shown that FeS2 NPs stabilized by l-cysteine self-assemble into multicompartment supraparticles (mSPs). The NPs initially produce ≈55 nm concave assemblies that reconfigure into ≈75 nm closed mSPs with ≈340 interconnected compartments with an average size of ≈5 nm. The intercompartmental partitions and mSP surface are formed primarily from FeS2 and Fe2 O3 NPs, respectively. The intermediate formation of cup-like particles enables encapsulation of biological cargo. This capability is demonstrated by loading mSPs with DNA and subsequent transfection of mammalian cells. Also it is found that the temperature stability of the DNA cargo is enhanced compared to the traditional delivery vehicles. These findings demonstrate that biomimetic compartmentalized particles can be used to successfully encapsulate and enhance temperature stability of the nucleic acid cargo for a variety of bioapplications.

Photonically active bowtie nanoassemblies with chirality continuum.

Chirality is a geometrical property described by continuous mathematical functions1-5. However, in chemical disciplines, chirality is often treated as a binary left or right characteristic of molecules rather than a continuity of chiral shapes. Although they are theoretically possible, a family of stable chemical structures with similar shapes and progressively tuneable chirality is yet unknown. Here we show that nanostructured microparticles with an anisotropic bowtie shape display chirality continuum and can be made with widely tuneable twist angle, pitch, width, thickness and length. The self-limited assembly of the bowties enables high synthetic reproducibility, size monodispersity and computational predictability of their geometries for different assembly conditions6. The bowtie nanoassemblies show several strong circular dichroism peaks originating from absorptive and scattering phenomena. Unlike classical chiral molecules, these particles show a continuum of chirality measures2 that correlate exponentially with the spectral positions of the circular dichroism peaks. Bowtie particles with variable polarization rotation were used to print photonically active metasurfaces with spectrally tuneable positive or negative polarization signatures for light detection and ranging (LIDAR) devices.