Understanding natural chirality and endowing novel materials with specific handedness are two puzzles facing the modern chemist.

A collaboration between groups in Belgium, France, Spain, Sweden, and the UK, has led to a way to extend controlled chirality of molecular nano-fibers to the meso-scale using the phenomenon of self-assembly. They explain how circular dichroism (CD) measurements reveal that optical activity is dependent on the preferential helicity of the twisted stacks of fibers produced and, critically, how fiber nucleation is important in the formation of the chiral meso-phase.

• Hierarchical Chiral Expression from the Nano- to Mesoscale in Synthetic Supramolecular Helical Fibers of a Nonamphiphilic C₃-Symmetrical pi-Functional Molecule
  I. Danila, F. Riob, F. Piron, J. Puigmart-Luis, J. D. Wallis, M. Linares, H. Ågren, D. Beljonne, D. B. Amabilino, N. Avarvari,
  J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011.
  DOI: 10.1021/ja202211k