Recent Advances in Chiral Plasmonics — Towards Biomedical Applications

The field of chirality has seen a strong rejuvenation due to the observation of nanoscale chirality in plasmonic nanoparticles. This account presents recent advances in the field of plasmonic chirality. The various top-down and bottom-up methods adopted for the synthesis of optically active plasmonic nanomaterials are briefly discussed. After achieving significant progress in the synthesis and mechanistic understanding of chirality at the nanoscale, the major focus of researchers is currently set on finding suitable applications for the synthesized nanomaterials. While different applications such as circular polarizers, chiral sensing and catalysis have been proposed, we propose that plasmon-enhanced chiral signals have great potential for use in the detection and therapy of diseases. We therefore introduce recent developments in the use of chiral plasmonic responses in the biomedical field. Chiral plasmonic nanomaterials are of great interest in the fields of optics, catalysis and biodetection, due to their exciting optical properties. We discuss here recent advances in the synthesis of chiral plasmonic nanomaterials and their applications in biosensing and therapy of diseases.