Naturally occurring single crystals having a multidomain morphology are a counterintuitive phenonomon: the macroscopic appearance is expected to follow the symmetry of the unit cell. Growing such crystals in the lab is a great challenge, especially from organic molecules. We achieve here uniform metallo-organic crystals that exhibit single crystallinity with apparently distinct domains and chirality. The chirality is present at both the molecular and macroscopic levels, although only achiral elements are used. "Yo-yo"-like structures having opposite helical handedness evolve from initially formed seemingly achiral cylinders. This non-polyhedral morphology coexists with a continuous coordination network forming homochiral channels. This work sheds light on the enigmatic aspects of fascinating crystallization processes occurring in biological mineralization. Our findings open up opportunities to generate new porous and hierarchical chiral materials.

中文翻译：

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在分子和形态水平上单晶的手性和结构复杂性的出现。

具有多域形态的天然存在的单晶是反直觉的现象：预期宏观外观遵循晶胞的对称性。在实验室中生长此类晶体是一项巨大的挑战，特别是来自有机分子的挑战。在这里，我们实现了均匀的金属有机晶体，该晶体显示出具有明显不同的区域和手性的单结晶度。尽管仅使用了非手性元素，但手性在分子和宏观水平上都存在。具有相反螺旋惯性的“溜溜球”状结构从最初形成的看似非手性圆柱体演变而来。这种非多面体形态与形成同手性通道的连续配位网络共存。这项工作揭示了生物矿化中令人着迷的结晶过程的神秘方面。我们的发现为产生新的多孔和分层手性材料提供了机会。