Polarized light—a simple route to highly chiral materials

Researchers at the University of Tokyo used an efficient method to create chiral materials using circularly polarized light. Depending on whether left- or right-polarized, the light source induced electric fields at opposite corners of gold nanocuboids on TiO2. Via plasmon-induced charge separation, the gold converted Pb2+ into PbO2 tips deposited at the corners, resulting in a chiral plasmonic nanostructure with high enantiomeric excess. Materials with such a chiral form are useful for sensing and asymmetric synthesis.