Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 25, 2026
06:44
From Molecules to Materials: Engineering New Ionic Liquid Crystals Through Halogen Bonding
Published on: March 24, 2018
69.6K
Multi-level chirality in liquid crystals formed by achiral molecules
Mirosław Salamończyk1,2, Nataša Vaupotič3,4, Damian Pociecha1
1Faculty of Chemistry, University of Warsaw, Żwirki i Wigury 101, 02-089, Warsaw, Poland.
Nature Communications
|April 25, 2019
Summary
Researchers created artificial materials with four levels of structural chirality, mimicking biological systems. These complex structures demonstrate how molecular order propagates across different scales, offering insights into hierarchical organization.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Supramolecular Chemistry
- Biophysics
Background:
- Complex materials exhibit hierarchical structures where molecular order propagates across nano- to micro-scales.
- Biological molecules like nucleic acids and amino acids possess chirality, leading to helical structures (DNA, proteins) and macroscopic asymmetry.
- Understanding cross-level order transfer necessitates simpler artificial systems with hierarchical arrangements.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate artificial systems built from achiral molecules that display hierarchical structural chirality.
- To explore the mechanisms of order propagation across multiple structural levels in synthetic materials.
- To compare the hierarchical chirality in artificial systems with that observed in biological systems.
Main Methods:
- Fabrication of complex systems using achiral molecules.
- Characterization using a combination of hard and soft X-ray diffraction measurements.
- Optical studies and theoretical modeling to analyze structural properties.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated four distinct levels of structural chirality: layer chirality, basic repeating unit helicity, mesoscopic helix, and helical filaments.
- Observed a coupling between chirality at different structural levels, analogous to biological systems.
- Successfully created artificial hierarchical structures from achiral building blocks.
Conclusions:
- Achiral molecules can self-assemble into complex hierarchical structures with multiple levels of chirality.
- These artificial systems provide a simplified model for studying order propagation and cross-level chirality coupling.
- The findings offer insights into the fundamental principles governing hierarchical organization in both synthetic and biological matter.
Related Concept Videos
02:25Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers
14.9K
Molecules that possess multiple chiral centers can afford a large number of stereoisomers. For instance, while some molecules like 2-butanol have one chiral center, defined as a tetrahedral carbon atom with four different substituents attached, several molecules like butane-2,3-diol have multiple chiral centers. A simple formula to predict the number of stereoisomers possible for a molecule with n chiral centers is 2n. However, there can be a lower number where some of the stereoisomers are...
14.9K
02:25Chirality
29.3K
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...
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...
29.3K
02:30Chirality in Nature
17.0K
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.
17.0K
02:58Crystal Field Theory - Octahedral Complexes
30.8K
Crystal Field Theory
To explain the observed behavior of transition metal complexes (such as colors), a model involving electrostatic interactions between the electrons from the ligands and the electrons in the unhybridized d orbitals of the central metal atom has been developed. This electrostatic model is crystal field theory (CFT). It helps to understand, interpret, and predict the colors, magnetic behavior, and some structures of coordination compounds of transition metals.
CFT focuses on...
To explain the observed behavior of transition metal complexes (such as colors), a model involving electrostatic interactions between the electrons from the ligands and the electrons in the unhybridized d orbitals of the central metal atom has been developed. This electrostatic model is crystal field theory (CFT). It helps to understand, interpret, and predict the colors, magnetic behavior, and some structures of coordination compounds of transition metals.
CFT focuses on...
30.8K
02:46Crystal Field Theory - Tetrahedral and Square Planar Complexes
48.4K
Tetrahedral Complexes
Crystal field theory (CFT) is applicable to molecules in geometries other than octahedral. In octahedral complexes, the lobes of the dx2−y2 and dz2 orbitals point directly at the ligands. For tetrahedral complexes, the d orbitals remain in place, but with only four ligands located between the axes. None of the orbitals points directly at the tetrahedral ligands. However, the dx2−y2 and dz2 orbitals (along the Cartesian axes) overlap with the ligands less than the dxy,...
Crystal field theory (CFT) is applicable to molecules in geometries other than octahedral. In octahedral complexes, the lobes of the dx2−y2 and dz2 orbitals point directly at the ligands. For tetrahedral complexes, the d orbitals remain in place, but with only four ligands located between the axes. None of the orbitals points directly at the tetrahedral ligands. However, the dx2−y2 and dz2 orbitals (along the Cartesian axes) overlap with the ligands less than the dxy,...
48.4K
02:30Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur
6.9K
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...
A consequence of chirality is the need for enantiomeric resolution. While this is theoretically possible for all...
6.9K