“Elucidation of the origin of chiral amplification in discrete molecular polyhedra”, a paper that presents the latest significant findings of Professor Xiaoyu Cao’s research group in the research of supramolecular chiral enhancement, was recently published in “Nature Communications” (2018, 9, 488. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-02605-x).

The research was completed under the joint supervision of XMU Professor Xiaoyu Cao and Assistant Professor Albert J. Markvoort from the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. Dr. Yu Wang, who graduated from Xiamen University and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley), and Hongxun Fang, an XMU PhD candidate, are the co-first authors of the paper. The theoretical computations for the research were completed by Dr. Ionut Tranca from the Eindhoven University of Technology, while the monocrystalline test was completed by XMU PhD candidates Hang Zhai and Xinchang Wang.

The research received support from many Chinese and international scholars. Professor E. W. (Bert) Meijer played an instrumental role in facilitating the international collaboration for the experiment and theory part the research. The research also benefited from the assistance of Professor Jean-Marie Lehn, Xi Zhang, Minghua Liu, Zhengdi Cheng, Takuzo Aida, Yunbao Jiang, Hui Zhang and Wei Zhang.