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Updated: May 26, 2026

Interfacial Molecular-level Structures of Polymers and Biomacromolecules Revealed via Sum Frequency Generation Vibrational Spectroscopy
Published on: August 13, 2019
Chiral assemblies of achiral rigid-flexible molecules at the air/water interface induced by silver(I) coordination
Libin Liu1, Tianduo Li, Myongsoo Lee
1Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Shandong Institute of Light Industry, Jinan, China. lbliu@spu.edu.cn
Abstract:
Chiral films are obtained from achiral rigid-flexible molecules. Due to hydrogen bonding and steric constraints, these molecules can self-assemble into chiral assemblies at the air/water interface upon compression. When the molecules are spread on a subphase containing AgNO(3), they form a stable monolayer through coordination with Ag(I) ions, as confirmed by surface pressure-area isotherms, UV/Vis and FTIR spectroscopy, and AFM. More interestingly, macroscopic chirality was detected in the Ag(I)-coordinated films by circular dichroism measurements. The formation mechanisms of the two kinds of chiral films are briefly discussed.
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