Preparation And Characterization Of Single-handed Helical Zirconia, Lithium Tantalate, Barium Titanate And Carbonaceous Nanotube Through Supramolecular Templating Approaches

A variety of chiral nanomaterials with different morphologies attracted muchattention worldwide, because of their potential applications in enantioseparation,asymmetric catalysis and chirality sensor. Zirconia, lithium tantalate, barium titanateand carbonaceous nanotube are important materials. Due to high chemical andmechanical stability, zirconia has been used in fuel cell, thermal barrier coating andfireproof material. For enantiopure single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), theycould be used as chirality sensor or indicator. Although several methods have beendeveloped, it is still a challenge to obtain enantiopure products. Ferroelectric materialshave been applied in memorizer, pyroelectric infrared indicator and optical waveguidedmodulator. However, the relationship between ferroelectricity and chirality has not beenwell studied. Herein, single-handed helical zirconia, lithium tantalate, barium titanateand carbonaceous nanotubes were preliminary prepared and characterized. The origin oftheir optical activity was charefully studied.The results are shown as follows: A series of organic amphiphiles were synthesizedand characterized using elemental analysis, nuclear magnetic resonance, Fouriertransform infrared spectroscopy, field emmisson scanning electron microscope andcircular dichroism. Based on supramolecular templating approaches, single-handedhelical zirconia, lithium tantalate, barium titanate and carbonaceous nanotubes wereprepared. For the zirconia (ZrO2) nanotubes, lithium tantalite and barium titanate,optical activity was observed using diffused reflectance circular dichroism, which wasproposed to originate from chiral defects. For the carbonaceous nanotubes, the opticalactivity was proposed to originate from chiral stackings of aromatic rings.