# Enhanced chiral discriminatory van der Waals interactions mediated by chiral surfaces

## TL;DR

This paper predicts and analyzes how chiral surfaces can enhance or suppress van der Waals interactions between molecules, enabling discrimination between enantiomers and potential separation techniques.

## Contribution

It generalizes the van der Waals interaction to include chiral media and demonstrates how chiral surfaces influence molecular interactions in novel ways.

## Key findings

- Chiral media modify van der Waals forces via many-body effects.
- Chiral interactions can distinguish between enantiomers.
- A geometric configuration isolates chiral contributions to the force.

## Abstract

We predict a discriminatory interaction between a chiral molecule and an achiral molecule which is mediated by a chiral body. To achieve this, we generalize the van der Waals interaction potential between two ground-state molecules with electric, magnetic and chiral response to non-trivial environments. The force is evaluated using second-order perturbation theory with an effective Hamiltonian. Chiral media enhance or reduce the free interaction via many-body interactions, making it possible to measure the chiral contributions to the van der Waals force with current technology. The van der Waals interaction is discriminatory with respect to enantiomers of different handedness and could be used to separate enantiomers. We also suggest a specific geometric configuration where the electric contribution to the van der Waals interaction is zero, making the chiral component the dominant effect.