Separation of chiral particles in micro- or nanofluidic channels

TL;DR

This paper introduces a microfluidic method to separate chiral particles by exploiting flow profiles that break chiral symmetry and induce differential migration based on particle chirality, demonstrated through simulations.

Contribution

It presents a novel hydrodynamic approach for enantiomer separation in micro- and nanofluidic channels using symmetry-breaking flow profiles and nonlinear effects.

Findings

Particles with different chirality migrate at different speeds.

The separation effect depends on flow nonlinearities and boundary conditions.

Thermal fluctuations can diminish the separation in linear regimes.

Abstract

We propose a method to separate enantiomers in microfluidic or nanofluidic channels. It requires flow profiles which break chiral symmetry and have regions with high local shear. Such profiles can be generated in channels confined by walls with different hydrodynamic boundary conditions (e.g. slip lengths). Due to a nonlinear hydrodynamic effect, particles with different chirality migrate at different speed and can be separated. The mechanism is demonstrated by computer simulations. We investigate the influence of thermal fluctuations (i.e. the P\'eclet number) and show that the effect disappears in the linear response regime. The details of the microscopic flow are important and determine which volume forces are necessary to achieve separation.