Chiral Transport: Enantiomer Separation in Microflows

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Molecules that only differ by their chirality, so called enantiomers, often possess different properties in particular with respect to their biological function. For example, the smell may strongly contrast for two enantiomers. Moreover, important molecular building blocks of living matter like sugars, amino acids and DNA are chiral molecules and the human body can only use right-handed sugars and left-handed amino acids. For all these reasons the separation of enantiomers is of great importance in molecular biology and belongs to the Holy Grail of organic chemistry. In this project we suggest a new separation technique that is based on the different transport properties of enantiomers in a flow with spatially variable vorticity. The proposed mechanism is akin to that of a drift ratchet which separates particles suspended in a flow according to their size. The detailed theoretical understanding of this novel chiral separation mechanism will require extensive computer simulations of the mutual interactions between fluid flows and the motions of chiral molecules. Because of their size the thermal, uctuating motion of the molecules must also be taken into account. We expect that these fluctuations can actually be utilized to improve the separation.