EAGER: Theoretical exploration of chiral separation via microfluidic shear flows

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1067798FuChiral particles, or particles which are geometrically distinct from their mirror images, are prevalent in biological chemical processes. The two distinct mirror-image particles are called enantiomers. For example, naturally occurring amino acids come in only one enantiomeric type, and hence all proteins, which are constructed of amino acids, are also chiral. Since a molecule's interaction with the biochemical machinery of life is dependent of geometry, a molecule and its enantiomer can have vastly different biological effects. Therefore enantiospecific activity occurs in diverse situations including pharmaceuticals, pheromones, and odorants, and it is of clear technological importance to develop efficient ways of separating chirally pure enantiomers from mixtures which contain both enantiomers.Previous work using particles of a specific helical geometry has demonstrated that the hydrodynamic interaction of chiral particles with shear flows produces a chirality-dependent drift which can be used to separate enantiomers. However, chiral molecules typically have nonhelical geometries. In this project, we will use theoretical and computational methods to explore how geometry affects the efficiency of chiral separation in shear flows. First, we will investigate the effect of particle geometry to identify promising geometries and shear regimes both for experiments at the micrometer scale as well as the molecular scale. At the molecular scale we will focus on chiral geometries which are likely to be found in biologically active molecules. The ultimate objective is to establish the most promising avenues for further experimental studies into shear-induced chiral separation.Understanding the interaction of chiral geometries and hydrodynamic flows will impact technology as well as basic science. This research will lay out the possibilities for transforming the methods used to achieve chiral separation, which may result in more robust and cheaper methods than those in current use, which will have pharmaceutical, biological, chemical, and agricultural applications. From a scientific viewpoint, the interaction between chirality and shear is a fascinating topic of relevance to fields as diverse as sedimentation, microbial locomotion, and ecology.