Efficient and reversible chirality induction between protein and achiral plasmonic assemblies

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Ziwei Zhou - , Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden (Author)
  • Ningwei Sun - , Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden (Author)
  • Nina Tverdokhleb - , Dresden Center for Computational Materials Science (DCMS), Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden (Author)
  • Artur Movsesyan - , University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) (Author)
  • Anja Maria Steiner - , Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden (Author)
  • Patrick T. Probst - , Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden, Kobe University (Author)
  • Vaibhav Gupta - , Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden (Author)
  • Bo Yin - , Synopsys Inc. (Author)
  • Nicolás Pazos-Peréz - , Universidad Rovira i Virgili (Author)
  • Ramón A. Álvarez-Puebla - , Universidad Rovira i Virgili, ICREA - Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (Author)
  • Mirjam Taube - , Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden (Author)
  • Martin Müller - , Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden, TUD Dresden University of Technology (Author)
  • Holger Merlitz - , Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden (Author)
  • Olga Guskova - , Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden, TUD Dresden University of Technology (Author)
  • Yaroslava G. Yingling - , North Carolina State University (Author)
  • Franziska S.C. Lissel - , Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden, Hamburg University of Technology (Author)
  • Tobias A.F. König - , Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden (Author)
  • Zhiming Wang - , University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (Author)
  • Alexander O. Govorov - , Ohio University (Author)
  • Nicholas A. Kotov - , University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (Author)
  • Andreas Fery - , Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed), Chair of Physical Chemistry of Polymeric Materials, Clusters of Excellence REC²: Responsible Electronics in the Climate-Change Era, Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden (Author)

Abstract

Chiral molecules in nature usually show optical activity only in the deep ultraviolet, whereas artificial chiral plasmonic nanostructures can generate much stronger responses at visible and near-infrared wavelengths. An important challenge is whether the abundant biomolecular chirality in nature can be directly transferred to achiral plasmonic systems without elaborate three-dimensional nanofabrication. Here we show that the mechanical stretching of protein molecules anchored within achiral gold nanoparticle assemblies strongly enhances and reversibly modulates plasmon-coupled circular dichroism. Stretching amplifies the chiroptical response to an ellipticity of 1.18° and a dissymmetry factor of 0.2, far exceeding conventional hotspot-based strategies. Repeated stretching and relaxation further enable reversible switching over more than 100 cycles. Simulations and in situ spectroscopy indicate that the deformation of protein changes its conformation and dipole alignment, thereby strengthening the plasmonic chiral response. These findings establish a route to achieve dynamically controllable chiroptical activity in achiral plasmonic assemblies, revealing how small biomolecular deformations can strongly influence plasmonic responses of much larger nanostructures.

Details

Original languageEnglish
JournalNature materials
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 15 Apr 2026
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0002-2335-0260/work/213150085