OP: Plasmonic Enhancement of Chiral Forces for Enantiomer Separation

在这个由化学系的大分子、超分子和纳米化学项目资助的项目中，波士顿大学的Bjoern Reinhard教授正在开发一种新的方法，利用光根据化学分子的“手性”对其进行分类。“与人类的左手和右手类似，化学分子可以以不同的形式存在，无法叠加。 这种分类的术语叫做“手性”。“由于具有不同手性的分子可以显示出非常不同的化学和药理学行为，因此将它们分离通常很重要。为了实现这一目标，正在开发纳米级天线，在光辐射下，产生的力指向不同方向的分子具有不同的手性。Reinhard教授开发的一个外展计划为本科生和内城高中生提供了参与这项研究计划的机会，并更多地了解光如何与分子相互作用。这项工作的更广泛影响包括开发适用于广泛分子的通用化学分离技术，并使药物化合物更安全，更便宜。Reinhard教授正在开发等离子体天线，提供足够强的光学手性密度梯度，以实现对映体选择性光学力。该项目解决了纳米天线的设计标准，产生对映体选择性的力量，在倏逝增强手性领域的统一标志。这些结构的实施和表征，并通过实验测试其分离对映异构体的能力。在整个项目中，模拟和实验都被应用于优化等离子体天线和最大化手征力。这种方法将导致手性光-物质相互作用如何增强共振等离子体纳米结构的定量理解。

In this project funded by the Macromolecular, Supramolecular, Nanochemistry program of the Chemistry Division, Professor Bjoern Reinhard of Boston University is developing a new approach to use light to sort chemical molecules based on their "handedness." Similar to the left and right human hand, chemical molecules can exist in different forms that cannot be superimposed. The term for this categorization is called "chirality." Because molecules with different chirality can show very different chemical and pharmacological behaviors it is often important to separate them. To achieve this goal, nanoscale antennas are being developed that, upon radiation with light, generate forces that point in different directions for molecules with different handedness. An outreach program developed by Professor Reinhard offers undergraduate students and inner city high school students opportunities to participate in this research program and to learn more about how light interacts with molecules. The broader impacts of this work include the development of universal chemical separation techniques that are applicable to a broad range of molecules and that can make pharmaceutical compounds safer and cheaper. Professor Reinhard is developing plasmonic antennas that provide strong enough gradients in optical chirality density to enable enantiomer-selective optical forces. The project addresses the design criteria of nanoantennas that generate enantio-selective forces in evanescent enhanced chiral fields of uniform sign. These structures are implemented and characterized, and their ability to separate enantiomers is tested experimentally. Throughout the project both simulations and experiments are applied to optimize plasmonic antennas and maximize chiral forces. This approach will lead to a quantitative understanding of how chiral light-matter interactions are enhanced by resonant plasmonic nanostructures.