Restrepo-Flórez Juan Manuel, Maldovan Martin
School of Chemical &Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332,USA.
School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA.
Sci Rep. 2016 Feb 25;6:21971. doi: 10.1038/srep21971.
Being able to manipulate mass flow is critically important in a variety of physical processes in chemical and biomolecular science. For example, separation and catalytic systems, which requires precise control of mass diffusion, are crucial in the manufacturing of chemicals, crystal growth of semiconductors, waste recovery of biological solutes or chemicals, and production of artificial kidneys. Coordinate transformations and metamaterials are powerful methods to achieve precise manipulation of molecular diffusion. Here, we introduce a novel approach to obtain mass separation based on metamaterials that can sort chemical and biomolecular species by cloaking one compound while concentrating the other. A design strategy to realize such metamaterial using homogeneous isotropic materials is proposed. We present a practical case where a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen is manipulated using a metamaterial that cloaks nitrogen and concentrates oxygen. This work lays the foundation for molecular mass separation in biophysical and chemical systems through metamaterial devices.
在化学和生物分子科学的各种物理过程中，能够控制质量流至关重要。例如，分离和催化系统需要精确控制质量扩散，这在化学品制造、半导体晶体生长、生物溶质或化学品的废物回收以及人工肾脏的生产中至关重要。坐标变换和超材料是实现分子扩散精确控制的有力方法。在此，我们介绍一种基于超材料获得质量分离的新方法，该超材料可以通过遮蔽一种化合物同时浓缩另一种化合物来对化学和生物分子种类进行分类。提出了一种使用均匀各向同性材料实现这种超材料的设计策略。我们展示了一个实际案例，其中使用一种遮蔽氮气并浓缩氧气的超材料来处理氧气和氮气的混合物。这项工作为通过超材料装置在生物物理和化学系统中进行分子质量分离奠定了基础。
