Chiral organosilica particles of size ∼200 nm were synthesized from an enantio-pure multi-armed chiral D-maltose organosilane precursor in the absence of co-condensation with an achiral monomer. Two distinct experiments were performed to demonstrate the particles’ ability to induce conformational deracemization of a host liquid crystal. The first involves an electric field-induced tilt of the liquid crystal director in the deracemized smectic-A phase. The other involves domain wall curvature separating left- and right-handed liquid crystal helical pitch domains imposed by the cells’ substrates. The results demonstrate unequivocally that enantio-pure organosilica nanoparticles can be synthesized and can induce chirality in a host.

在不与非手性单体共缩合的情况下，由对映纯的多臂手性D-麦芽糖有机硅烷前体合成尺寸约为200 nm的手性有机硅颗粒。进行了两个不同的实验，以证明颗粒诱导宿主液晶构象脱氨的能力。首先涉及电场引导的液晶指向矢在非消旋近晶A相中的倾斜。另一个涉及畴壁曲率，该曲率壁曲率将由单元基板施加的左手和右手液晶螺旋螺距畴分开。结果明确表明，可以合成对映纯有机二氧化硅纳米颗粒，并且可以诱导宿主中的手性。