Jang Jiye, Coquerel Gerard, Seo Tae Seok, Kim Woo-Sik, Park Bum Jun
Department of Chemical Engineering (BK21 FOUR Integrated Engineering Program), College of Engineering, Kyung Hee University, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do 17104, Republic of Korea.
SMS Laboratory EA3233, University of Rouen Normandy, F-76821 Mont Saint Aignan, France.
Lab Chip. 2024 Oct 22;24(21):5055-5064. doi: 10.1039/d4lc00658e.
We report on the use of a microfluidic antisolvent crystallization method to investigate the effect of solution volume on the chiral symmetry breaking (CSB) phenomena of enantiomeric sodium chlorate crystals. The utilization of a microfluidic device is capable of periodically producing emulsion droplets of uniform size and facilitates the quantitative analysis and visualization of crystallization phenomena occurring within the individual emulsions immersed in an oil continuous medium (, dodecane). To promote nucleation and crystallization, a small amount of an antisolvent (, ethanol) is introduced into the continuous phase. We observe that 100% CSB occurs within a certain critical emulsion volume. Beyond this critical volume, the probability of forming two different enantiomeric crystal particles increases. This solution volume-dependent CSB phenomenon can be attributed to the rapid depletion of surrounding molecules by spontaneous crystal growth after the formation of the initial nucleus within the critical volume, thereby suppressing further primary nucleation.
