Chiral Plasmonics Using Twisting along Cellulose Nanocrystals as a Template for Gold Nanoparticles

Abstract

The right-handed twist along aqueous dispersed cellulose nanocrystals allows right-handed chiral plasmonics upon electrostatic binding of gold nanoparticles in dilute environment, through tuning the particle sizes and concentrations. Simulations using nanoparticle coordinates from cryo-electron tomography confirm the experimental results. The finding suggests generalization for other chiral and helical colloidal templates for nanoscale chiral plasmonics.