Creating Chiral Surfaces:

From Nanoscale Control to Macroscale Amplification

Rasmita Raval

Surface Science Research Centre, Department of Chemistry, University of Liverpool, UK. E-mail: raval@liv.ac.uk

 

One of the most versatile ways of introducing the property of chirality to a high symmetry surface is via the introduction of organic molecules [1-4]. This talk will illustrate the manifestation, transfer and amplification of chirality from the nanoscale to the macroscale at such surfaces - from the creation of local chiral sites, to macroscopic extended chiral arrays. Pertinent examples, chosen from the adsorption of bicarboxylic acids and amino acids at metal surfaces, will show that a variety of mechanisms from supramolecular assemblies, to chiral reconstructions, to chiral electronic perturbations, enable the property of chirality to be introduced and propagated at surfaces.

 It will also be demonstrated that chiral molecular assemblies at surfaces are capable of incredibly complex and dynamic behaviour, spawning versatile interfaces that can display multifunctional polymorphic organisations. In addition, their susceptibility to small nanoscale perturbations leads to highly dynamic responses at the global level, and drives important characteristics like self-adaptive behaviour, 2-D chiral resolution,  chiral recognition at the single-molecule level, and global  amplification of chirality.

References:

[1] ‘Extended Surface Chirality from Supramolecular Assemblies of Adsorbed Chiral  Molecules’, M.Ortega-Lorenzo, C.J.Baddeley, C.Muryn, R.Raval, Nature, 404 (2000) 376.

[2] ‘Complex Organic Molecules at Metal Surfaces: Bonding, Organisation and Chirality’,  S. Barlow and R.Raval, Surface Science Reports, 50 (2003) 201.

[3] ‘From Local Adsorption Stresses to Chiral Surfaces: (R,R)-Tartaric Acid on Ni(110)’, V.Humblot, S. Haq, C. Muryn, W.A.Hofer, R.Raval, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 124 (2002) 503.

[4]  Local and Global Chirality at Surfaces: Succinic Acid versus Tartaric Acid on Cu(110)’, V.Humblot, M.Ortega Lorenzo, C.J.Baddeley, S.Haq and R.Raval, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 126 (2004) 6460.