Recent Advances in Inorganic Chiral Nanomaterials

Inorganic nanoparticles offer a multifunctional platform for biomedical applications in drug delivery, biosensing, bioimaging, disease diagnosis, screening, and therapies. Homochirality prevalently exists in biological systems composed of asymmetric biochemical activities and processes, so biomedical applications essentially favor the usage of inorganic chiral nanomaterials, which have been widely studied in the past two decades. Here, the latest investigations are summarized including the characterization of 3D stereochirality, the bionic fabrication of hierarchical chirality, extension of the compositional space to poly-elements, studying optical activities with the (sub-)single-particle resolution, and the experimental demonstration in biomedical applications. These advanced studies pave the way toward fully understanding the two important chiral effects (i.e., the chiroptical and enantioselective effects), and prospectively promote the flexible design and fabrication of inorganic chiral nanoparticles with engineerable functionalities to solve diverse practical problems closely associated with environment and public health.

Automated summary

Inorganic nanoparticles are a versatile platform for biomedical applications, particularly in the study and application of chiral effects. Recent research focuses on characterizing 3D stereochirality, bionic fabrication of hierarchical chirality, studying optical activities, and experimental demonstration in biomedical applications. These studies pave the way for fully understanding and utilizing chiral effects in the design and fabrication of inorganic chiral nanoparticles for practical problem-solving in environment and public health.