Langmuir, Vol.36, No.17, 4702-4710, 2020
Unraveling Chiral Selection in the Self-assembly of Chiral Fullerene Macroions: Effects of Small Chiral Components Including Counterions, Co-ions, or Neutral Molecules
Lactic acid-functionalized chiral fullerene (C60) molecules are used as models to understand chiral selection in macroionic solutions involving chiral macroions, chiral counterions, and/or chiral co-ions. With the addition of Zn2+ cations, the C-60 macroions exhibit slow self-assembly behavior into hollow, spherical, blackberry-type structures, as confirmed by laser light scattering (LLS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques. Chiral counterions with high charge density show no selection to the chirality of AC(60) macroions (LAC(60) and DAC(60)) during their self-assembly process, while obvious chiral discrimination between the assemblies of LAC(60) and DAC(60) is observed when chiral counterions with low charge density are present. Compared with chiral counterions, chiral co-ions show weaker effects on chiral selection with larger amounts needed to trigger the chiral discrimination between LAC(60) and DAC(60). However, they can induce a higher degree of discrimination when abundant chiral co-ions are present in solution. Furthermore, the self-assembly of chiral AC(60) macroions is fully suppressed by adding significant amounts of neutral molecules with opposite chirality. Thermodynamic parameters from isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) reveal that chiral selection is controlled by the ion pairing and the destruction of solvent shells between ions, and meanwhile originates from the delicate balance between electrostatic interaction and molecular chirality.