Chiral plasmonic nanocrystals are garnering attention for their strong chiroptical properties, which are being leveraged in a variety of applications including chemical sensing. Recent research has shown that intrinsically chiral Au nanocrystals can be synthesized by seed- mediated overgrowth in the presence of chiral molecules, where there is a reduction in rotational symmetry when moving from seeds to the final nanocrystals. Varying the concentrations of gold precursor used in overgrowth, chiral additive, stabilizing surfactant, and reducing agent have been shown to impact the resultant g-factor, an extinction-normalized measurement of chiroptical activity. Here, the effect of chiral additive identity and concentration on the overgrowth of Au nanorods of varying dimensions is reported. This systematic analysis allowed the effects of nanorod size and aspect ratio on the formation of chiral nanocrystals to be elucidated by structural characterization via scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Additionally, optical chirality was measured within bulk solution by circular dichroism spectroscopy. This research aims to expand the synthetic strategies for acquiring intrinsically chiral nanocrystals of varying aspect ratio and thus new chiroptical properties.

Effect of Au nanorod aspect ratio on glutathione-directed growth: A path toward chiral nanocrystals

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