Role of Morphology in the Enhanced Optical Activity of Ligand-Protected Metal Nanoparticles

In recent years, much research has been dedicated to understand and predict the interaction of light with nanostructures, which exhibit a wide variety of interesting physical properties that can be tailored by altering their size, morphology, composition, and environment. One emerging area in nanoscience is the phenomenon where the optical activity can be influenced and enhanced due to the presence of metal nanoparticles, with possible technological implications in sensing and labeling chiral molecules, asymmetric catalysis, pharmacology, toxicology, among other applications. In this Perspective article, we talk about the theoretical aspects of this phenomenon and the relationship between morphology and the optical activity enhancement in ligand-protected metal nanoparticles.