Biomimetic superhelical conducting microfibers with homochirality for enantioselective sensing

J Am Chem Soc. 2014 Jan 15;136(2):578-81. doi: 10.1021/ja409796b. Epub 2014 Jan 2.

Abstract

Chiral amplification and discrimination are great challenges in both scientific and technological research fields such as chemical synthesis, chiral catalysis, and biomedicine. By mimicking protein superstructures in nature, chiral conducting polyaniline (PANI) molecules induced by chiral dopants were self-assembled to ultra-ordered superhelical microfibers. The induced homochirality is observed to be amplified into different hierarchies, from chiral molecules to helical nanostructures, and to superhelical microstructures. Furthermore, both experimental and theoretical results indicated that the gas sensor made from a single PANI helical microfiber showed enantioselective discrimination to chiral aminohexane, giving it great potential for applications in online chiral discrimination.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aniline Compounds / chemistry*
  • Biomimetic Materials / chemistry*
  • Hexanes / analysis*
  • Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / instrumentation*
  • Particle Size
  • Stereoisomerism
  • Surface Properties

Substances

  • Aniline Compounds
  • Hexanes
  • polyaniline