Chiral semiconductor structures can provide rich materials platform for optics, catalysis and biomimetics. Their structure-property relationship, however, remains poorly understood compared to plasmonic or organic materials. We synthesized mesoscale semiconductor helices from cadmium telluride nanoparticles (CdTe NPs) with extremely high enantioselectivity. These helices provide an excellent opportunity, both experimentally and computationally, to advance our understanding of the complex relationship between geometry and chiroptical properties for semiconductors. The mesoscale size and high helicity imparted them with broadband UV-vis-IR rotatory power extending to 1800 nm and anisotropy factors approaching 0.01, respectively. Interestingly, chiral self-sorting was observed for assemblies from racemic NPs, resulting from preferential interaction between NPs with the same chirality. These helices were further functionalized with plasmonics such as Au NPs, which can be exploited for chiral catalysis. This study offers a comprehensive understanding for chiral semiconductors and design rules for tunable chiroptical properties, facilitating the development of polarization-based optics toward biomedical applications, telecommunications, and hyperspectral imaging.<br/>

Chiral semiconductor helices at the mesoscale

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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