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Superhelicity of Chiral Strings

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Part of the book series: Springer Proceedings in Physics ((SPPHY,volume 154))

Abstract

A phenomenon of self-assembly of solitary rigid supramolecular strings with lengths up to \(\sim \)0.1 cm and anisometry ratios \(\sim \)(10\(^{2 }-10^{4}\)) was discovered in dilute (\(\sim \)10\(^{-3}\) M) solutions of homochiral trifluoroacetylated aminoalcohols (TFAAA). Macroscopic chirality (helicity) of strings with diameters from \(\sim \)2 nm to 20 \(\upmu \)m and lengths from \(10^{2}\) nm to 0.1 cm was revealed as well as their chiral hierarchy: thicker strings consist of intertwisted thinner ones (superhelicity), with helix step lengths from \(\sim \)10 nm to several tens of \(\upmu \)m. Empirical rule of switching of the macroscopic chirality sign between superhelicity levels was established, which fits the fundamental synergetic law of chirality sign switching between hierarchy levels of complexity in biological systems. It was shown that molecular chirality act as a macroscopic helicity structural factor.

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Correspondence to Sergey V. Stovbun .

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Stovbun, S.V., Skoblin, A.A., Litvin, I.A. (2014). Superhelicity of Chiral Strings. In: Polychroniadis, E., Oral, A., Ozer, M. (eds) International Multidisciplinary Microscopy Congress. Springer Proceedings in Physics, vol 154. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04639-6_35

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