Separation of Microscale Chiral Objects by Shear Flow
Open accessAbstract
We show that plane parabolic flow in a microfluidic channel causes nonmotile, helically shaped bacteria to drift perpendicular to the shear plane. Net drift results from the preferential alignment of helices with streamlines, with a direction that depends on the chirality of the helix and the sign of the shear rate. The drift is in good agreement with a model based on resistive force theory, and separation is efficient (>80%) and fast (<2 s). We estimate the effect of Brownian rotational diffusion on chiral separation and show how this method can be extended to separate chiral molecules.
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Fluid flows can discriminate not only large chiral objects, but also helical bacteria, colloidal particles, and supramolecular aggregates.
“A few experimental reports indicate that fluid flows can discriminate not only large chiral objects, 140-142 but also helical bacteria, 143 colloidal particles, 144 and supramolecular aggregates.145,146”
From Possible chemical and physical scenarios towards biological homochirality (2022) · cites this paper as [143]
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Possible chemical and physical scenarios towards biological homochirality
Sallembien, Q., Bouteiller, L., Crassous, J., & Raynal, M. (2022) · Chemical Society Reviews · doi:10.1039/d1cs01179k · Cited by 186 · see citing works
Not Just Going with the Flow: The Effects of Fluid Flow on Bacteria and Plankton
Wheeler, J. D., Secchi, E., Rusconi, R., & Stocker, R. (2019) · Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology · doi:10.1146/annurev-cellbio-100818-125119 · Cited by 139 · see citing works
Self-citationVortex flows impart chirality-specific lift forces
Hermans, T. M., Bishop, K. J. M., Stewart, P. S., Davis, S. H., & Grzybowski, B. A. (2015) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/ncomms6640 · Cited by 52 · see citing works
- Authors
- Marcos, Fu, H. C., Powers, T. R., & Stocker, R.
- Affiliations
- Brown University (US)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
- Venue
- Physical Review Letters
- Publisher
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Published
- 2009-04-15
- Volume
- 102
- Issue
- 15
- Pages
- 158103-158103
- ISSN
- 0031-9007 (ISSN-L)
- 1079-7114
- OpenAlex
- W2107606823
- Cited by
- 127
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 4.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Physical Review Letters (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (0615919, 0744641, CAREER, 0526241)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Microfluidic and Bio-sensing Technologies
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Condensed Matter Physics › Micro and Nano Robotics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Microfluidic and Capillary Electrophoresis Applications
- Keywords
- enantiomer separation, shear flow, microfluidics, parabolic flow, resistive force theory, chiral molecules
- MeSH terms
- Isomerism, Mutation, Spirochaetales, Shear Strength, Microfluidics
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Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
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