The capability of one molecule to have specific recognition to another is of crucial importance for living organisms. Its implications range from the maintaining of central enzymatic and metabolic cycles to the search for specific reactions in medicine, pharmacology, catalysis, etc. In particular, since the molecular building blocks of life (aminoacids and sugars) are chiral, special interest has been placed on the understanding of the hierarchical transfer of chirality from the single‐molecule to the supramolecular level. Our work aims to unravel the basic mechanisms involved in the chiral recognition of adsorbed aminoacids and dipeptides and to propose new routes for the creation of fully functionalized enantioselective surfaces. By tracking the conformational dynamics of adsorbed dipeptides on Cu(110) by scanning tunneling microscopy it will be shown that chiral recognition takes place at the single‐molecule level via the general “induced fit” mechanism developed by Pauling and Koshland more than 50 years ago. Moreover, I will show that fully patterned biomolecular chiral surfaces can be created by two novel methods that we have recently introduced: tuning the expression of supramolecular chirality by molecular engineering of chiral adsorption sites (footprint engineering of aminoacids) and 2D co‐crystallization (mixed phases of achiral and chiral molecules).

Seminar, June 6^th, 15.00h, ICFO's Lecture Hall

Hosted by: Prof. Niek van Hulst