Weakening Circular Dichroism of Plasmonic Nanospirals Induced by Surface Grafting with Alkyl Ligands

Abstract

Silver nanospirals with strong chiroptical activity (characterized by circular dichroism) are grafted with achiral alkyl ligands, resulting in a weakening of the chiroptical activity. The chiroptical weakening is exacerbated with increasing bond energy of the Ag-ligand contacts, which is ascribed to the effective medium screening effect and electron withdrawal toward the alkyl ligands.