Chiral Symmetry Breaking in Magnetoelectrochemical Etching with Chloride Additives

Abstract

Magnetoelectrolysis (electrolysis under magnetic fields) produces chiral surfaces on metal thin films, which can recognize the enantiomers of amino acids. Here, the chiral surface formation on copper films is reported in magnetoelectrochemical etching (MEE) at 5T with chloride additives. In the absence of additives, the surface chirality signs of MEE films depended on the magnetic field polarity. On the contrary, the MEE films prepared with the additives exhibited only d-activity in both magnetic field polarities. This result implies that the specific adsorption of chloride additives induces the chiral symmetry breaking for the magnetic field polarity.

Keywords

• surface chirality
• magnetoelectrolysis
• magnetohydrodynamic vortex
• chiral symmetry breaking
• copper film
• alanine