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Title: Unraveling the origin of chirality from plasmonic nanoparticle-protein complexes
Plasmon-coupled circular dichroism has emerged as a promising approach for ultrasensitive detection of biomolecular conformations through coupling between molecular chirality and surface plasmons. Chiral nanoparticle assemblies without chiral molecules present also have large optical activities. We apply single-particle circular differential scattering spectroscopy coupled with electron imaging and simulations to identify both structural chirality of plasmonic aggregates and plasmon-coupled circular dichroism induced by chiral proteins. We establish that both chiral aggregates and just a few proteins in interparticle gaps of achiral assemblies are responsible for the ensemble signal, but single nanoparticles do not contribute. We furthermore find that the protein plays two roles: It transfers chirality to both chiral and achiral plasmonic substrates, and it is also responsible for the chiral three-dimensional assembly of nanorods. Understanding these underlying factors paves the way toward sensing the chirality of single biomolecules.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1903980
PAR ID:
10166490
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Science
Volume:
365
Issue:
6460
ISSN:
0036-8075
Page Range / eLocation ID:
1475 to 1478
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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