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Photonic materials

A chirality continuum

Nature Synthesis volume 2, page 309 (2023)Cite this article

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Now, writing in Nature, Sharon Glotzer, Nicholas Kotov and co-workers report the synthesis of microscale bowtie structures for which the twist — or chirality — continuously varies. The bowties are formed in aqueous solutions, from cadmium ions and either l- or d-cystine, in 90 seconds. l-cystine produces only left-twisted bowties (pictured; scale bar 2 µm), whereas d-cystine forms only right-twisted bowties. If a racemic mixture of the cystine enantiomers is used, the microparticles formed are stacks of flat, nanoscale pancake-type structures.

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  1. Nature Synthesis https://www.nature.com/natsynth/

    Alison Stoddart

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  1. Alison Stoddart
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Correspondence to Alison Stoddart.

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Stoddart, A. A chirality continuum. Nat. Synth 2, 309 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44160-023-00301-x

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