Chiral nanostructures have excellent optical properties and research results in my country are increasing

Chirality is an important symmetry feature in many disciplines and is a basic attribute ubiquitous in natural materials. For example, the DNA double helix and protein secondary structure in the field of biology are chiral structures. Nanomaterials are materials with at least one dimension in a three-dimensional space at nanometer (1-100nm) size. As the size shrinks, the characteristics of the material will change and exhibit unique properties. Therefore, nanostructures have become one of the hot spots in materials science research. Chiral nanostructures have unique photochemical and photomechanical effects, so they have attracted attention.

Chiral nanostructures have excellent optical activity, and special optical properties can be achieved by artificially designing this structure; the different responses of the optical rotation characteristics of chiral nanostructures to circularly polarized light can be used to distinguish material structures, which is a new method to determine molecular structures. . At this stage, research on chiral nanostructures involves many fields such as metamaterials, asymmetric catalysis, topological electronics, etc. Plasmonic metal nanostructures with chiral optical response characteristics in the visible light band are one of the research hotspots.

According to the “Chiral Nanostructure Industry In-depth Market Research and Investment Strategy Suggestions Report 2021-2025” released by the Industrial Research Center, Chiral nanostructures have broad development prospects in the fields of optical devices, optical communications, color displays, biosensing, biomedicine, chemical catalysis, inspection and detection, stealth materials and other fields. Because chiral nanostructures have unique optical characteristics in the visible light band, they can be used in optical devices, optical communications, color displays, etc. Chiral nanostructures can distinguish the molecular structure of substances, have chiral recognition and separation functions, and can be used in biological transmission. Sensing, inspection and detection, stealth materials, etc.; in addition, the special properties of chiral nanostructures give them good development potential in biomedicine, chemical catalysis, etc.

Chiral nanostructures have outstanding performance advantages, so domestic and foreign universities and scientific research institutions continue to conduct in-depth research on them. In our country, research results on chiral nanostructures have been increasing in recent years, and a number of results were published in 2020 in just one year. For example, the Shandong University team has made progress in self-assembled chiral nanostructures and the expansion of optically active functions; Lanzhou University researchers have collaborated with many universities at home and abroad to prepare chiral particles with multi-level complex structures and strong chiral luminescence; Shanghai A team from Jiaotong University collaborated with the University of Michigan to artificially prepare chiral particles with highly complex nanostructures; a team from East China University of Science and Technology constructed a chiral ring nanoscale hierarchical structure for the first time, and so on.

Our government also attaches great importance to the development of chiral nanostructures. The “Nano Frontier” key project of the “14th Five-Year Plan” national key research and development plan proposes to develop new stimulus-responsive chiral nanostructure systems and study the response regulation, rules and mechanisms of chiral nanomaterials to multiple stimuli. Research directional synthesis technology, realize the unique photochemical and photomechanical effects of chiral nanostructures, and develop new methods for light regulation of molecular conformation and function. Industry analysts said that under the background of national policy promotion and increased research intensity in universities, my country’s chiral nanostructure research results will continue to Increase, industrialization transformation will be the focus of industry development in the future.