Emergence of complexity in hierarchically organized chiral particles

• DOI: 10.1126/science.aaz7949
• Publication Date: 2020-04-09T23:07:11Z
• Authors: Wenfeng Jiang; Zhi-bei Qu; Prashant Kumar; Drew Vecchio; Yuefei Wang; Yu Ma; Joong Hwan Bahng; Kalil Bernardino; Weverson R. Gomes; Felippe M. Colombari; Asdrubal Lozada-B...; Michael Veksler; Emanuele Marino; Alex Simon; Christopher Murray; Sérgio Ricardo Muniz; André F. de Moura; Nicholas A. Kotov
• Keywords: Micrometer; Colloidal particle

Complex chiral particles Synthetic colloids are usually smooth, but nature can produce micrometer-scale with intricate structure and shape, such as the coccoliths produced by algae. Jiang et al. controlled self-assembly of gold–cysteine nanoplatelets into a variety chiral, hierarchically organized colloidal changing fraction cysteine nucleation temperature. Organic cations created electrostatic repulsions that favored edge assembly nanoplatelets, which in turn could create surfaces bearing twisted spikes. Science , this issue p. 642