English

Translating Chirality into Multidirectional Motion through Broadband Chiroptical MXenes

Materials Science 2025-12-11 v1

Abstract

The integration of chirality into functional materials enables control of light-matter interactions beyond binary illumination (on/off). Conventional photoactuators rely on binary modulation, limiting them to unidirectional motion. In contrast, we introduce a ternary optical logic paradigm where actuation direction is encoded by the handedness of circularly polarized light (CPL). Here, we establish a chiral Ti3_{3}C2_{2}Tx_{x} MXene platform bridging molecular chirality and mechanical actuation. Phenylalanine enantiomers are covalently anchored onto MXene nanoflakes via chiral nanopainting. The 2D confinement forces ligands into vertically aligned supramolecular networks. Interlayer-spacing analysis and simulations corroborate that such supramolecular networks unlock exceptionally broadband circular dichroism from the ultraviolet to the near-infrared. This supramolecular chirality synergizes with MXene's plasmonic properties to drive handedness-dependent photothermal conversion, with a 30\% differential temperature rise between matched and mismatched CPL. Embedding this chiral MXene into thermoresponsive hydrogels realizes, to the best of our knowledge, the first CPL-driven soft actuator that implements LCP/RCP/off as a ternary input to program multidirectional deformation based on a photothermal mechanism. This molecular-to-macroscopic translation demonstrates a new paradigm for chirality-encoded soft robotics and adaptive photonics.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2512.09326,
  title  = {Translating Chirality into Multidirectional Motion through Broadband Chiroptical MXenes},
  author = {Wookjin Jung and Dongkyu Lee and Yonghee Lee and Ki Hyun Park and Jihyeon Yeom},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.09326},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T08:18:21.927Z