Chemical reactions affected by spin angular momenta of circularly polarized photons are rare and display low enantiomeric excess. Because of high optical and chemical activity, nanoparticles (NPs) signifies the possibility of converting spin angular momenta of absorbed photons into structural changes of nanoscale materials by self-assembling. However, such processes are currently unknown. Here, we demonstrate that circularly polarized light (CPL) strongly affects the nature of self-assembly of racemic CdTe NPs. In particular, illumination of right- and left-handed CPL into NP dispersions induces the formation of right- and left-handed twisted nanoribbons, respectively. Enantiomeric excess of such reactions exceeds 30% which is ~10 times higher than other CPL-induced reactions. In contrast, illumination with linearly polarized light and assembly in the dark led to straight nanoribbons. This observation of imprinting the polarization information of incident photons by NPs opens new pathways for the synthesis of chiral photonic materials and allows for better understanding of the origins of biomolecular homochirality.

Chiral transmission to self-assembling nanostructures from circularly polarized light

249th National Meeting (2015)

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