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Aqueous-phase hierarchical chiral assembly of Zn-cysteine: Chirality amplification and Interface-ready functionality
Zimo Wang1, Junjie Ba1, Junpeng Li1
1Key Laboratory of Physics and Technology for Advanced Batteries (Ministry of Education), State Key Laboratory of High Pressure and Superhard Materials, College of Physics, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, China. College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, China.
None:
Hierarchical self-assembly offers a route to translate molecular chirality across length scales, yet achieving long-range helical order in water while integrating multiple functions on a single, composition-tunable platform remains challenging. Here we present an aqueous, modular superstructure built by Zn(II)-cysteine self-assembly under slow base release, leveraging hexamethylenetetramine in directing Zn aqueous synthesis. The resulting flower-like superstructures preserve chiroptical activity while tolerating uptake of transition-metal ions, showing progressive chirality amplification from sheet formation to helical stacking. Functionally, the chiral host operates in two regimes: as a sensing interface it yields mirror-image differential pulse voltammetry responses for L-/D-tryptophan, consistent with interfacial enantioselective enrichment; as a catalyst precursor, Co loading produces efficient oxygen-evolution performance in alkaline media with reduced overpotentials and smaller Tafel slopes relative to racemic controls, in line with CISS-enhanced kinetics reported for chiral electrocatalysts. Conceptually, this work establishes a single, water-phase platform that unifies scalable amino-acid-directed assembly, persistent and mesoscopic chirality, and metalation, offering a general blueprint for multifunctional chiral architecture.
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