SURF-CHIR · Covalent chiral functionalization of graphite for enantioselective applications

Covalent chiral functionalization of graphite for enantioselective applications

Many of the molecules essential to life — including amino acids, sugars, and DNA — exist in two mirror-image forms, like left and right hands. This property is called chirality. In chemistry and medicine, the two mirror-image versions of a molecule (enantiomers) can behave very differently: one may be a useful drug, while the other is inactive or even harmful. The ability to distinguish, separate, and exploit chirality is therefore of fundamental importance to the pharmaceutical, chemical, and materials industries. At the same time, a separate but related challenge is emerging in electronics. As conventional silicon-based devices approach their physical size limits, scientists are exploring molecules as the active components of next-generation electronic devices. One promising phenomenon is the chirality-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect: chiral molecules can act as filters for electron spin — the quantum property that underlies magnetic data storage and quantum computing technologies. Harnessing CISS in practical devices could open new routes to room-temperature molecular spintronics, with applications in data storage, sensing, and quantum information. The SURF-CHIR project was designed to address both of these challenges through a single unified approach: the fabrication of functional chiral surfaces. The project was carried out at KU Leuven (Belgium) under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship programme, which supports the career development of excellent researchers while advancing European scientific priorities in nanotechnology and advanced materials. The original objectives of the project were to: (1) create stable chiral surfaces by chemically attaching chiral molecules to carbon-based materials; (2) use these surfaces to achieve enantioselective adsorption — the preferential capture of one mirror-image form of a molecule over the other; and (3) scale up the approach for practical applications in chiral separation and chromatography. Together, these objectives were designed to contribute to more efficient production of enantiopure drugs, greener chemical synthesis, and a deeper understanding of chirality at the nanoscale. As the project evolved, the scientific pathway shifted toward physisorption-based chiral surfaces and their application in molecular spintronics — an outcome that proved more impactful than originally anticipated, delivering results that challenge long-standing assumptions in the field and open new directions for both surface science and spintronic device design.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union