Self-assembled Möbius strips with controlled helicity.

Nat Commun

Beijing National Laboratory of Molecular Sciences, CAS Key Laboratory of Colloid, Interface and Thermodynamics, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China.

Published: November 2020

AI Article Synopsis

  • Researchers address challenges in supramolecular topology development due to unreliable synthetic methods.
  • A new strategy is introduced to create Möbius strips by bending and cyclizing twisted nanofibers made from chiral glutamate amphiphiles.
  • The study shows that the unique helical structures are influenced by the chirality of the amphiphiles, leading to distinct M- and P-helical Möbius strips based on the type of glutamate used.

Article Abstract

Different from molecular level topology, the development of supramolecular topology has been limited due to a lack of reliable synthetic methods. Here we describe a supramolecular strategy of accessing Möbius strip, a fascinating topological object featured with only a single edge and single side. Through bending and cyclization of twisted nanofibers self-assembled from chiral glutamate amphiphiles, supramolecular nano-toroids with various twist numbers were obtained. Electron microscopic techniques could clearly identify the formation of Möbius strips when twist numbers on the toroidal fibers are odd ones. Spectroscopic and morphological analysis indicates that the helicity of the Möbius strips and nano-toroids stems from the molecular chirality of glutamate molecules. Therefore, M- and P-helical Möbius strips could be formed from L- and D-amphiphiles, respectively. Our experimental results and theoretical simulations may advance the prospect of creating chiral topologically complex structures via supramolecular approach.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7680134PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19683-zDOI Listing

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