Separation of chiral particles in micro- or nanofluidic channels
Abstract
We propose a method to separate enantiomers in microfluidic or nanofluidic channels. It requires flow profiles which break chiral symmetry and have regions with high local shear. Such profiles can be generated in channels confined by walls with different hydrodynamic boundary conditions (e.g. slip lengths). Due to a nonlinear hydrodynamic effect, particles with different chirality migrate at different speed and can be separated. The mechanism is demonstrated by computer simulations. We investigate the influence of thermal fluctuations (i.e. the P\'eclet number) and show that the effect disappears in the linear response regime. The details of the microscopic flow are important and determine which volume forces are necessary to achieve separation.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1204.4079,
title = {Separation of chiral particles in micro- or nanofluidic channels},
author = {Sebastian Meinhardt and Jens Smiatek and Ralf Eichhorn and Friederike Schmid},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1204.4079},
year = {2012}
}
Comments
Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters