Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 2, 2025

A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality
Published on: March 11, 2022
Emergence of Chirality in an Optically Active Two-Dimensional Crystal with a Spiral Surface Pattern
Hubiao Huang1,2, Gangfeng Chen1,2, Manabu Hoshino3
1RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan.
Abstract:
Some one-dimensional (1D) crystals containing a screw dislocation along their longer axis exhibit a helical twist due to lattice strain. These chiral structures have been thoroughly investigated by using transmission electron microscopy. However, whether two-dimensional (2D) crystals with a spiral surface pattern, presumably containing a screw dislocation, are structurally chiral remains unclear because their internal structures are not visible. Here, we report that a particular 2D crystal with a spiral surface pattern emits circularly polarized luminescence despite comprising achiral building blocks. Comprehensive X-ray structural analysis of this 2D crystal reveals a helical structure with an achiral space group featuring distinctive twinning. This twinned 2D crystal consists of four centrosymmetric components. Applying the twin law to these four achiral components results in a spirally arranged topology, leading to the emergence of chirality in the 2D crystals.
Related Concept Videos
Chirality in Nature
Chirality
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...
Prochirality
Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers
Fischer Projections
Properties of Enantiomers and Optical Activity

