Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers

Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers

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...

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...

Prochirality

Prochirality

The concept of prochirality leads to the nomenclature of the individual faces of a molecule and plays a crucial role in the enantioselective reaction. It is a concept where two or more achiral molecules react to produce chiral products. A typical process is the reaction of an achiral ketone to generate a chiral alcohol. Here, the achiral reactant reacts with an achiral reducing agent, sodium borohydride, to generate an equimolar mixture of the chiral enantiomers of the product. For example, an...

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.

Stereoisomerism

Stereoisomerism

Isomerism in Complexes
Isomers are different chemical species that have the same chemical formula.
Transition metal complexes often exist as geometric isomers, in which the same atoms are connected through the same types of bonds but with differences in their orientation in space. Coordination complexes with two different ligands in the cis and trans positions from a ligand of interest form isomers. For example, the octahedral [Co(NH3)4Cl2]+ ion has two isomers (Figure 1) In the cis...

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...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Bioinspired Real-Time Dynamic Responsive Structural Colors.

Polymer science & technology (Washington, D.C.)·2026

Same author

Vectorial lasing with designable topological charges based on Möbius-like correspondence in quasi-BICs.

Light, science & applications·2026

Same author

Quasi-bound flat bands in the continuum.

Nature communications·2025

Same author

Cicada rib-inspired tough films through nanoconfined crystallization for use in acoustic transducers.

Science advances·2025

Same author

KPNA2 expression as a biomarker for immunosuppressive microenvironment predicting response to TKI and immunotherapy in metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

European journal of pharmacology·2025

Same author

GPR65 Functions as a Key Factor of Bone Aging and a Novel Therapeutic Target for Osteoporosis.

Aging cell·2025

Same journal

Chemotactic self-organization captures the dynamics of mammalian hair follicle patterning.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026

Same journal

Tomographic imaging of superconducting order using particle-hole interference.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026

Same journal

Inhibitory potential of autologous neutralizing antibodies sets quantitative limits on the rebound-competent HIV-1 reservoir.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026

Same journal

Inferring epidemiological parameters under an infectious phylogeography model with visitor dynamics.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026

Same journal

Analytical modeling for suction cup designs for skin-interfaced wearable devices.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026

Same journal

Improving cell-free metabolism through direct integration of artificial respiratory chains.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026

See all related articles

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 26, 2025

An Electrochemical Cholesteric Liquid Crystalline Device for Quick and Low-Voltage Color Modulation

An Electrochemical Cholesteric Liquid Crystalline Device for Quick and Low-Voltage Color Modulation

Published on: February 27, 2019

Chiral structural color from microdomes.

Xintao Lai^1,2, Tongyu Li³, Xiaoyu Hou²

¹Key Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Materials and Interface Science, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, People's Republic of China.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

|February 25, 2025

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Common polymer microdomes create tunable chiral structural colors for advanced optical security. These microdomes offer high-capacity information encryption and anti-counterfeiting solutions, including secure identity authentication via contact lenses.

Keywords:

anti-counterfeiting chirality encryption structural color

More Related Videos

A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality

A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality

Published on: March 11, 2022

Fabrication of Polymer Microspheres for Optical Resonator and Laser Applications

Fabrication of Polymer Microspheres for Optical Resonator and Laser Applications

Published on: June 2, 2017

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 26, 2025

An Electrochemical Cholesteric Liquid Crystalline Device for Quick and Low-Voltage Color Modulation

An Electrochemical Cholesteric Liquid Crystalline Device for Quick and Low-Voltage Color Modulation

Published on: February 27, 2019

A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality

A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality

Published on: March 11, 2022

Fabrication of Polymer Microspheres for Optical Resonator and Laser Applications

Fabrication of Polymer Microspheres for Optical Resonator and Laser Applications

Published on: June 2, 2017

Area of Science:

Materials Science
Optics
Nanotechnology

Background:

Artificial chiral-structural-color materials offer high-dimensional information storage and optical security.
Current materials face limitations in composition, nanostructure fabrication, and polarization modulation.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop novel chiral structural color materials with tunable properties.
To explore applications in high-capacity information encryption and anti-counterfeiting.

Main Methods:

Fabrication of microdome patterns using common polymers via ordinary printing techniques.
Characterization of broadband tunability and multiple polarization-modulated chirality.
Development of multidimensional tunable structural color displays.

Main Results:

Microdomes exhibit tunable chiral structural colors with broadband tunability and multiple polarization-modulated chirality.
Easily fabricated microdome patterns display inhomogeneous spatial distributions of full polarization states and customizable colors.
Achieved high-capacity information encryption and developed contact lenses with 2^32 distinct cryptograms for identity authentication.

Conclusions:

Chiral-structural-color microdomes (CSCMs) present a viable approach for advanced optical security and anti-counterfeiting.
The developed CSCMs enable high-capacity information encryption and secure identity authentication.
This technology holds significant potential for secure information storage and authentication applications.