Self-assembly of shape-shifting chiral colloids

Chirality is an important shape feature relevant to many fields of fundamental science, from biology to physics and chemistry. Understanding chirality plays a key role in developing novel photonics, chiral electronics, and chiral metamaterials. Here, we aim to develop stimuli-responsive materials based on chiral building blocks with tunable shapes as opposed to classical colloids with fixed geometry. We provide details on the fabrication of colloidal chiral particles and the possibilities of tuning their pitch, handedness, length, and width. We first show the dynamics of changes in dimension, curvature, and chirality of a free-standing single particle upon external trigger. Next, we elucidate the phase diagram of self-assembly structures of chiral colloids and how continuously tuning building units' dismission, curvature, and chirality affects the chiral ensemble across different length scales. Our findings deepen our understanding of chiral structures and pave the way for the development of novel classes of materials based on responsive building blocks.