Chiral Separation by Flows: The Role of Flow Symmetry and Dimensionality

TL;DR

This paper investigates how flow symmetry and dimensionality influence the separation of chiral objects in microfluidic flows, revealing that quasi-two-dimensional flows are optimal for enantiomer resolution.

Contribution

It provides a fundamental analysis linking flow symmetry to chiral separation, deriving conditions for effective separation, and validating predictions with simulations.

Findings

Flow symmetry under parity inversion is crucial for chiral separation.

Quasi-two-dimensional flows enable precise and efficient enantiomer resolution.

Simulations confirm the theoretical conditions for separation in different flow types.

Abstract

Separation of enantiomers by flows is a promising chiral resolution method using cost-effective microfluidics. Notwithstanding a number of experimental and numerical studies, a fundamental understanding still remains elusive, and an important question as to whether it is possible to specify common physical properties of flows that induce separation has not been addressed. Here, we study the separation of rigid chiral objects of an arbitrary shape induced by a linear flow field at low Reynolds numbers. Based on a symmetry property under parity inversion, we show that the rate-of-strain field is essential to drift the objects in opposite directions according to chirality. From eigenmode analysis, we also derive an analytic expression for the separation conditions which shows that the flow field should be quasi-two-dimensional for the precise and efficient resolutions of microscopic enantiomers. We demonstrate this prediction by Langevin dynamics simulations with hydrodynamic interactions fully implemented. Finally, we discuss the practical feasibility of the linear flow analysis, considering separations by a vortex flow or an extensional flow under a confining potential.