Controlled Synthesis of Au Chiral Propellers from Seeded Growth of Au Nanoplates for Chiral Differentiation of Biomolecules

Abstract

Chiral plasmonic nanocrystals are promising materials for applications in enantioselective catalysis, DNA detection, and medical diagnosis. Herein, we demonstrate a simple and versatile strategy that produces plasmonic nanostructures with strong chiroptical responses by a chiral ligand mediated seeded growth approach. By modulation of the surface coverage of chiral ligands on Au nanotriangles, propeller-like structures with the growth of three arms on the tips of the triangles are produced with a high anisotropy factor. Finally, these Au chiral propellers can be used as substrates for the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) detection of chiral biomolecules, achieving chiral differentiation for enantiomers of biomolecules.