Figure 2: Two-step synthesis for controlling crystallographic and geometric handedness.
From: Cooperative expression of atomic chirality in inorganic nanostructures
(a) Schematic of the growth process based on epitaxial principle with involvement of chiral molecule to tailor the chirality of morphology. (b,c) Large-scale TEM image of as-synthesized α-HgS nanostructures with (+)C-P and (+)C-M nanostructures by following synthetic route in a, respectively. Scale bar, 200 nm. (d,e) Typical TEM images of prevailing individual nanostructures from b and c, respectively. Blue dashed curves are added to guide the eyes for different twisting orientation in a nanostructure. Scale bar, 20 nm. (f) High-resolution TEM image of selected yellow area in d. Helical atomic arrangement along crystallographic c axis can be unambiguously identified, as illustrated in Fig. 1b. Scale bar, 5 nm. (g) Better resolution to reveal feature of helical atomic arrangement. Scale bar, 2 nm. (h) Fourier transform of TEM image, confirming assignment of crystallographic axis. (i–n) TEM images of (+)C-M (i–k) and (+)C-P (l–n) α-HgS nanostructures with different size. Blue dashed curve is added to guide the eyes for different twisting orientation in a nanostructure. Scale bar, 100 nm.
