Speaker: Prof. Zhifeng Huang, professer from the Chinese University of Hong Kong
Title: Symmetry Breaking of Molecules Induced by Chiral Nano-Inorganics
Time: 14:00 August 28th, 2025 (Thursday)
Venue: No.5 conference room on the 3rd floor, Building No.5
Host: Prof. Pengfei Duan
Info. of Speaker：
Prof. Zhifeng HUANG, in Department of Chemistry at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, is Member of The Hong Kong Young Academy of Sciences. Prof. Huang is devoted to fabricating inorganic nanopillar arrays to study symmetry breaking, chiral nanoplasmonics, surface-enhanced chiroptical spectroscopies, asymmetric catalysis, optoelectronics and cell culture. He published ~80 papers, such as in Nat. Chem., Nat. Nanotechnol., Nat. Commun., Adv. Mater., Adv. Funct. Mater., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Chem, Adv. Sci., Nano Lett. and Small. Prof. Huang co-founded a spin-off, Mat-A-Cell Ltd., to commercialize a new-generation medical nano-device for cell culture. The inventions, patented in US, Europe and China, was awarded WIPO National Award for Inventors and Gold Medal (2025 Silicon Valley International Invention Festival, US), Gold Medal and Award by French Inventors Federation and Europe – France Inventors (the 50th Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions 2025), 2019 TechConnect Innovation Award and Gold Medal with Congratulations of Jury (the 46th International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva, 2018).
Abstract:
Many of life's building blocks (e.g., amino acids and sugars) exhibit homochirality, with one stereoisomeric configuration preferentially existing over its mirror image, leading to chirality-dependent interactions and functions in biological systems. The existence of biochemical homochirality raises a fundamental yet unanswered question about the origin of molecular enantiopreference on Earth. One of the keys to answer this question is to understand external chiral forces to trigger symmetry breaking, which has been believed to induce the homochirality through chirality amplification. Symmetry breaking usually occurs in a stochastic manner in an achiral environment, and chiral stimulations to trigger and control the symmetry breaking is ambiguous and under debate. Some external chiral forces have been proposed, including asymmetric mechanical forces, chiral electromagnetic fields and enantiospecific interactions. It is well known that organic life existed on the Earth made of inorganic minerals, so whether inorganic chiral materials could manipulate the symmetry breaking to obtain homochiral molecules? The investigation to answer this question is in its infancy.
We are devoting ourself to answering this crucial question using chiral nano-inorganics without attachment of chiral organic molecules, which are fabricated by glancing angle physical vapor deposition. Chiral nano-inorganics, with the atomic and nano-scale chirality, are made of metals, alloys, and semiconductors. Four kinds of external chiral triggers, associated with chiral nano-inorganics, are being under investigation, including chiral inorganic-organic enantiospecific interactions, chirality transmission from circularly polarized light, chirality transmission enhanced by superchiral near fields, and chiral-induced spin selectivity. Our works open a new door to disclose the origins of biochemical homochirality (or life), stemming from the chiral nano-inorganics on the prebiotic Earth.
