EAGER: Theoretical exploration of chiral separation via microfluidic shear flows

1067798Fu手性粒子，即几何上与其镜像不同的粒子，在生物化学过程中普遍存在。这两个截然不同的镜像粒子被称为对映体。例如，自然产生的氨基酸只有一种对映体类型，因此所有由氨基酸组成的蛋白质也都是手性的。由于分子与生命生化机制的相互作用依赖于几何结构，因此分子及其对映体可能具有非常不同的生物效应。因此，对映异构体在药物、信息素和气味等不同的环境中都存在，因此开发有效的方法从含有这两种对映体的混合物中分离手性纯对映体具有明显的技术重要性。以前使用特定螺旋几何形状的粒子的工作已经证明，手性粒子与剪切流的流体动力相互作用产生手性相关的漂移，可用于分离对映体。然而，手性分子通常具有非螺旋几何结构。在这个项目中，我们将使用理论和计算方法来探索几何结构如何影响剪切流动中手性分离的效率。首先，我们将研究粒子几何的影响，以确定微米级和分子级的实验中有希望的几何和剪切区域。在分子尺度上，我们将重点研究生物活性分子中可能存在的手性几何结构。最终目的是为剪切诱导手性分离的进一步实验研究提供最有前途的途径。了解手性几何和流体动力相互作用将对技术和基础科学产生影响。这项研究将展示改变用于实现手性分离的方法的可能性，这可能会导致比目前使用的方法更强大和更便宜的方法，这些方法将具有制药、生物、化学和农业应用。从科学的观点来看，手性和切变之间的相互作用是一个与沉积、微生物运动和生态学等不同领域相关的有趣话题。

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.