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Chirality – the absence of mirror symmetry – plays a central role in chemistry, biology, and materials science, (1) where structural asymmetry can propagate across multiple length scales. (2−5) Synthetic nanomaterials increasingly follow analogous strategies. Chiral building blocks or chiral growth environments can bias nanoparticle shapes, assemblies, and optical responses.

1. Introduction Click to copy section linkSection link copied! In colloidal NC synthesis, morphological control is typically achieved through the selection of surface-active molecules that adsorb onto specific crystallographic facets and modulate their growth kinetics. By tailoring the ligand/surfactant type and concentration, it is possible to direct growth along preferred crystallographic axes to achieve anisotropic morphologies.

3.1. Nanocrystal Structure and Shape Control The growth and morphological evolution of the Te NCs is governed by the interplay between the interaction of surface atoms with ligand molecules and the intrinsic anisotropy of the Te lattice, which favors growth along the c -axis. Growing Te NCs with penicillamine as the sole ligand yields asymmetric bipyramids with distinct shape chirality, as shown in Figure 1 a.