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Chiral symmetry breaking yields the I-Au(60) perfect golden shell of singular rigidity

The combination of profound chirality and high symmetry on the nm-scale is unusual and would open exciting avenues, both fundamental and applied. Here we show how the unique electronic structure and bonding of quasi-2D gold makes this possible. We report a chiral symmetry breaking, i.e., the spontan...

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Autores principales: Mullins, S.-M., Weissker, H.-Ch., Sinha-Roy, R., Pelayo, J. J., Garzón, I. L., Whetten, R. L., López-Lozano, X.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6105599/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30135495
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05215-3
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author Mullins, S.-M.
Weissker, H.-Ch.
Sinha-Roy, R.
Pelayo, J. J.
Garzón, I. L.
Whetten, R. L.
López-Lozano, X.
author_facet Mullins, S.-M.
Weissker, H.-Ch.
Sinha-Roy, R.
Pelayo, J. J.
Garzón, I. L.
Whetten, R. L.
López-Lozano, X.
author_sort Mullins, S.-M.
collection PubMed
description The combination of profound chirality and high symmetry on the nm-scale is unusual and would open exciting avenues, both fundamental and applied. Here we show how the unique electronic structure and bonding of quasi-2D gold makes this possible. We report a chiral symmetry breaking, i.e., the spontaneous formation of a chiral-icosahedral shell (I−Au(60)) from achiral (I(h)) precursor forms, accompanied by a contraction in the Au–Au bonding and hence the radius of this perfect golden sphere, in which all 60 sites are chemically equivalent. This structure, which resembles the most complex of semi-regular (Archimedean) polyhedra (3(4).5(*)), may be viewed as an optimal solution to the topological problem: how to close a 60-vertex 2D (triangular) net in 3D. The singular rigidity of the I−Au(60) manifests in uniquely discrete structural, vibrational, electronic, and optical signatures, which we report herein as a guide to its experimental detection and ultimately its isolation in material forms.
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spelling pubmed-61055992018-08-27 Chiral symmetry breaking yields the I-Au(60) perfect golden shell of singular rigidity Mullins, S.-M. Weissker, H.-Ch. Sinha-Roy, R. Pelayo, J. J. Garzón, I. L. Whetten, R. L. López-Lozano, X. Nat Commun Article The combination of profound chirality and high symmetry on the nm-scale is unusual and would open exciting avenues, both fundamental and applied. Here we show how the unique electronic structure and bonding of quasi-2D gold makes this possible. We report a chiral symmetry breaking, i.e., the spontaneous formation of a chiral-icosahedral shell (I−Au(60)) from achiral (I(h)) precursor forms, accompanied by a contraction in the Au–Au bonding and hence the radius of this perfect golden sphere, in which all 60 sites are chemically equivalent. This structure, which resembles the most complex of semi-regular (Archimedean) polyhedra (3(4).5(*)), may be viewed as an optimal solution to the topological problem: how to close a 60-vertex 2D (triangular) net in 3D. The singular rigidity of the I−Au(60) manifests in uniquely discrete structural, vibrational, electronic, and optical signatures, which we report herein as a guide to its experimental detection and ultimately its isolation in material forms. Nature Publishing Group UK 2018-08-22 /pmc/articles/PMC6105599/ /pubmed/30135495 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05215-3 Text en © The Author(s) 2018 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Mullins, S.-M.
Weissker, H.-Ch.
Sinha-Roy, R.
Pelayo, J. J.
Garzón, I. L.
Whetten, R. L.
López-Lozano, X.
Chiral symmetry breaking yields the I-Au(60) perfect golden shell of singular rigidity
title Chiral symmetry breaking yields the I-Au(60) perfect golden shell of singular rigidity
title_full Chiral symmetry breaking yields the I-Au(60) perfect golden shell of singular rigidity
title_fullStr Chiral symmetry breaking yields the I-Au(60) perfect golden shell of singular rigidity
title_full_unstemmed Chiral symmetry breaking yields the I-Au(60) perfect golden shell of singular rigidity
title_short Chiral symmetry breaking yields the I-Au(60) perfect golden shell of singular rigidity
title_sort chiral symmetry breaking yields the i-au(60) perfect golden shell of singular rigidity
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6105599/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30135495
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05215-3
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