Helical nanoparticle-induced enantiospecific adsorption of N3 dyes

Abstract

It is of fundamental demand for heterogeneous asymmetric catalysis on generating intrinsically chiral metal catalysts without modification of chiral ligands on which molecular substrates can be enantiospecifically adsorbed, which is lack of investigation. Herein, we demonstrate that the anchoring of N3 dyes on plasmonic helical nanoparticles (PhNPs) made of silver through the formation of NCS–Ag contacts leads to enantiospecific adsorption of N3 dyes. The enantiospecific configuration of the immobilized N3 dyes is primarily determined by the helical handedness, and the maximization of the adsorption enantiospecificity occurs at a nominal helical pitch of ∼15 nm, probably ascribed to the formation of supramolecular chiral complexes and/or the helical handedness-induced break of mirror symmetry of adsorption configuration. This study may pave the way for developing of PhNPs to function as intrinsically chiral catalysts and devising an alternative method to operate heterogeneous asymmetric catalysis with high enantioselectivity, which is practically desired for the manufacture of prominent single-enantiomer chemicals.