Chiral separation in microflows

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel microfluidic method for separating enantiomers based on their transport behavior in flows with spatially varying vorticity, considering thermal fluctuations crucial for the mechanism.

Contribution

It introduces a new chiral separation technique utilizing microflows with variable vorticity, accounting for thermal fluctuations affecting molecule transport.

Findings

Effective separation mechanism demonstrated

Thermal fluctuations are essential for the process

Potential for improved enantiomer separation in microfluidics

Abstract

Molecules that only differ by their chirality, so called enantiomers, often possess different properties with respect to their biological function. Therefore, the separation of enantiomers presents a prominent challenge in molecular biology and belongs to the ``Holy Grail'' of organic chemistry. We suggest a new separation technique for chiral molecules that is based on the transport properties in a microfluidic flow with spatially variable vorticity. Because of their size the thermal fluctuating motion of the molecules must be taken into account. These fluctuations play a decisive role in the proposed separation mechanism.