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Chirality

Chirality

Chirality is a term that describes the lack of mirror symmetry in an object. In other words, chiral objects cannot be superposed on their mirror images. For example, our feet are chiral, as the mirror image of the left foot, the right foot, cannot be superposed on the left foot.
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...

Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur

Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur

Chirality is most prevalent in carbon-based tetrahedral compounds, but this important facet of molecular symmetry extends to sp3-hybridized nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur centers, including trivalent molecules with lone pairs. Here, the lone pair behaves as a functional group in addition to the other three substituents to form an analogous tetrahedral center that can be chiral.
A consequence of chirality is the need for enantiomeric resolution. While this is theoretically possible for all...

Chirality in Nature

Chirality in Nature

Chirality is the most intriguing yet essential facet of nature, governing life’s biochemical processes and precision. It can be observed from a snail shell pattern in a macroscopic world to an amino acid, the minutest building block of life. Most of the snails around the world have right-coiled shells because of the intrinsic chirality in their genes. All the amino acids present in the human body exist in an enantiomerically pure state, except for glycine - the sole achiral amino acid.

Fischer Projections

Fischer Projections

Learning to draw Fischer projections of molecules and understanding their relevance plays a crucial role in the visual depiction of organic molecules. A Fischer projection is a two-dimensional projection on a planar surface to simplify the three-dimensional wedge–dash representation of molecules. This is especially helpful in the case of molecules with multiple chiral centers that can be difficult to draw. Here, all the bonds of interest are represented as horizontal or vertical lines. While...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 25, 2026

Electrospray Deposition of Uniform Thickness Ge23Sb7S70 and As40S60 Chalcogenide Glass Films

Electrospray Deposition of Uniform Thickness Ge23Sb7S70 and As40S60 Chalcogenide Glass Films

Published on: August 19, 2016

Chiral atomically thin films.

Cheol-Joo Kim¹, A Sánchez-Castillo², Zack Ziegler¹

¹Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.

Nature Nanotechnology

|February 23, 2016

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Researchers developed a chiral stacking method to create atomic-scale chiral films. This technique precisely controls layer rotation and polarity, enabling tunable chiral properties in materials like bilayer graphene for advanced nanodevices.

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Electrospray Deposition of Uniform Thickness Ge23Sb7S70 and As40S60 Chalcogenide Glass Films

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Published on: August 19, 2016

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Area of Science:

Materials Science
Condensed Matter Physics
Nanotechnology

Background:

Chiral materials exhibit unique properties crucial for optics, stereochemistry, and spintronics.
Achieving atomic-scale control over chiral film properties has been a significant challenge.
Existing methods lack direct programming of intrinsic chirality at the atomic level.

Purpose of the Study:

To introduce a novel chiral stacking approach for creating atomically thin chiral films.
To demonstrate tunable chiral properties by controlling interlayer rotation and polarity.
To explore the potential of these engineered chiral films in nanodevices.

Main Methods:

Layer-by-layer stacking of two-dimensional materials with controlled interlayer rotation (θ) and polarity.
Fabrication of left- and right-handed bilayer graphene films.
Characterization of optical properties, including ellipticity and circular dichroism (CD).

Main Results:

Successful production of atomically thin chiral films, specifically bilayer graphene.
Observation of high intrinsic ellipticity (6.5 deg μm⁻¹) and strong circular dichroism (CD).
Demonstration that CD peak energy and sign are tunable via interlayer rotation and polarity.
Attribution of chiral properties to in-plane magnetic moments from interlayer optical transitions.
Creation of three-layer graphene films with structurally controlled CD spectra.

Conclusions:

The chiral stacking approach offers precise atomic-scale control over film chirality.
Engineered chiral films exhibit tunable and strong optical responses, suitable for advanced applications.
This method provides a pathway for designing novel nanodevices with programmed chiral functionalities.