Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 4.21
The operation principle of a device allowing one to resolve
“right” and “left” enantiomers. The racemic mixture with excited enan-
tiomers of both types of chirality is placed into a reaction chamber. The
effectiveinteractionofspeciallytunedchiralnanoparticles[accordingtothe
conditions (4.50)] takes place only for molecules with selected chirality. It
allows them to become unexcited quickly, whereas molecules with another
type of chirality remain excited. Such molecules can be removed from the
chamberbydifferentmethods.Asaresult,thedesiredpureenantiomerwill
be accumulated in the chamber. Reprinted from Ref. 42, with permission
from IOPPublishing.
of 10-100 or more times and, consequently, one will see images of
molecules with the chosen chirality only.
Chiral molecules play especially important role in biology and
pharmacy. Therefore, it is extremely important to arrange the
separation of the “right” and “left” enantiomers of molecules in the
racemic mixtures. This can be done in various ways, for example, by
using radiation pressure forces in the electromagnetic field of left
or right-handed circularly polarized electromagnetic waves [27], or
by using spiral optical beams [40]. Our results pave the way to new
devices for the separation of enantiomers in racemic mixtures.
The operation principle of such a device is shown in Fig. 4.21.
The key element of this scheme is a reaction chamber containing
nanoparticles prepared in accordance with the conditions (4.50).
The racemic mixture of enantiomers is placed in this chamber and
then excited by one or another way (e.g., photoexcitation). Due
