Chiral Plasmonic Nanorods Regulated by Achiral Aromatic Thiols for Plasmon-Mediated Photo-Reductive Coupling of 4-Nitrothiophenol

Preincubation of chiral ligands with achiral seeds has proven effective in controlling the initial symmetry breaking of the seeds. In this study, we further incorporated achiral aromatic thiols during the incubation stage. Using achiral gold nanorods (AuNRs) as seeds and cysteine (Cys) as the chiral ligand, we observed that the introduction of 4-nitrothiophenol (4-NTP) significantly enhanced the chiroptical responses of the resulting chiral plasmonic nanorods (CPNRs). This observation suggests a distinct strategy for modulating the initial symmetry breaking on seed surfaces. Furthermore, the surface structures of the CPNRs were found to strongly influence the photoreductive coupling reactions of 4-NTP, both with and without 4-mercaptophenylboronic acid, indicating that beyond chiral morphology, local surface architecture also plays a critical role in plasmon-mediated photocatalytic reactions.