Abstract
THE spontaneous breaking of symmetry is responsible for many physical phenomena, including the mass differences of elementary particles and phase transitions in condensed-matter systems. The breaking of mirror symmetry leads to chirality. In general, chiral effects in condensed-matter systems, such as optical activity, are associated with chiral molecular structures. But several recent observations1–3 of domain formation in thin organic films of achiral molecules have suggested that spontaneous separation into regions of differing chirality may occur in these systems. Eckhardt et al.4, meanwhile, have reported the spontaneous resolution of chiral molecules in Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) films. Here we present images of LB films of calcium arachidate obtained with the atomic force microscope5, which suggest that these achiral molecules can separate spontaneously into lattices with chiral packing of opposite handedness. We suggest that this symmetry breaking is driven by the interplay between the packing constraints imposed by the alkane tails and the molecular-area requirements set by the calcium ions6–13.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Qui, X., Ruiz-Garcia, J., Stine, K. J., Knobler, C. M. & Selinger, J. V. Phys. Rev. Lett. 67, 703–706 (1991).
Qui, X., Ruiz-Garcia, J. & Knobler, C. M., Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 237, 263–270 (1992).
Maclennan, J. & Seul, M. Phys. Rev. Lett. 69, 2082–2085 (1992).
Eckhardt, C. J. et al. Nature 362, 614–616 (1993).
Binnig, G., Quate, C. F. & Gerber, Ch. Phys. Rev. Lett. 56, 930–933 (1986).
Schwartz, D. K., Viswanathan, R. & Zasadzinski, J. A. Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 1267–1270 (1993).
Schwartz, D. K., Viswanathan, R. & Zasadzinski, J. A. N. J. Am. chem. Soc. 115, 7374–7380 (1993).
Schwartz, D. K., Garnaes, J., Viswanathan, R. & Zasadzinski, J. A. Science 257, 508–511 (1992).
Garnaes, J., Schwartz, D. K., Viswanathan, R. & Zasadzinski, J. A. Nature 357, 54–57 (1992).
Schwartz, D. K., Viswanathan, R. & Zasadzinski, J. A. J. phys. Chem. 96, 10444–10447 (1992).
Schwartz, D. K., Garnaes, J., Viswanathan, R., Chiruvolu, S. & Zasadzinski, J. A. Phys. Rev. E47, 452–460 (1993).
Viswanathan, R., Zasadzinski, J. A. & Schwartz, D. K. Science 261, 449–452 (1993).
Kitaigorodskii, A. I. Organic Chemical Crystallography (Consultant Bureau, New York, 1961).
Roberts, G. G. Langmuir-Blodgett Films (Plenum, New York, 1990).
Ulman, A. An Introduction to Ultrathin Organic Films (Academic, San Diego, 1991).
Marti, O. Science 239, 50–53 (1988).
Bourdieu, L., Silberzan, P. & Chatenay, D. Phys. Rev. Lett. 67, 2029–2032 (1991).
Meyer, E. et al. Nature 349, 398–400 (1991).
Zasadzinski, J. A. N. et al. Biophys. J. 59, 755–760 (1991).
Sirota, E. B., Smith, G. S., Safinya, C. R., Plano, R. J. & Clark, N. A. Science 242, 1406–1409 (1988).
Selinger, J. V., Wang, Z.-G., Bruinsma, R. F. & Knobler, C. M. Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 1139–1142 (1993).
Smith, D. P. E., Hörber, J. K. H., Binnig, G. & Nejoh, H. Nature 344, 641–644 (1990).
Outka, D. A., Stöhr, J., Rabe, J. P., Swalen, J. D. & Rotermund, H. H. Phys. Rev. Lett. 59, 1321–1324 (1987).
Ahn, D. J. & Franses, E. I. J. phys. Chem. 96, 9952–9959 (1992).
Yazdanian, M., Yu, H. & Zografi, G. Langmuir 6, 1093–1098 (1990).
Yazdanian, M., Yu, H. & Zografi, G. Langmuir 8, 630–636 (1992).
Shnidman, Y., Ulman, A. & Eilers, J. E. Langmuir 9, 1071–1081 (1993).
Pauling, L. The Nature of the Chemical Bond 43 (Cornell Univ. Press, Ithaca, New York, 1960).
Pasteur, L. C. r. hebd. Seanc. Acad. Sci., Paris 26, 535–539 (1848).
Kobayashi, K., Takoaka, K. & Ochiai, S. Thin Solid Films 159, 267–273 (1988).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Viswanathan, R., Zasadzinski, J. & Schwartz, D. Spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking by achiral molecules in a Langmuir–Blodgett film. Nature 368, 440–443 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1038/368440a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/368440a0
This article is cited by
-
Spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in metamaterials
Nature Communications (2014)
-
Stirring competes with chemical induction in chiral selection of soft matter aggregates
Nature Communications (2012)
-
Extended surface chirality from supramolecular assemblies of adsorbed chiral molecules
Nature (2000)
-
Chiral symmetry breaking during the self-assembly of monolayers from achiral purine molecules
Journal of Molecular Evolution (1996)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.