Supercoiling as a Physical Process Providing Formation of Macroscopic Anisometric Supramolecular Structures

Solutions of chiral and achiral trifluoroacetyl amino alcohols (TFAAA) contain anisometric structures with a diameter <1 nm and length ~7 nm. In homochiral solutions and xerogels, chiral TFAAA form strings with a diameter of ~30-100 nm and length more than ~1 μ, and achiral TFAAA condensate into isometric granule with diameter of ~1 μ. We conclude that molecular chirality determines helicity of strings within tens of nanometers or more. Stabilization of supramolecular structure of strings is presumably achieved via their supercoiling.