Title
Creating cross-linked lamellar block copolymer supporting layers for biomimetic membranes
Date Issued
01 January 2018
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Lang C.
Shen Y.
LaNasa J.
Ye D.
Song W.
Zimudzi T.
Hickner M.
Gomez E.
Kumar M.
Hickey R.
Pennsylvania State University
Publisher(s)
Royal Society of Chemistry
Abstract
The long-standing goal in membrane development is creating materials with superior transport properties, including both high flux and high selectivity. These properties are common in biological membranes, and thus mimicking nature is a promising strategy towards improved membrane design. In previous studies, we have shown that artificial water channels can have excellent water transport abilities that are comparable to biological water channel proteins, aquaporins. In this study, we propose a strategy for incorporation of artificial channels that mimic biological channels into stable polymeric membranes. Specifically, we synthesized an amphiphilic triblock copolymer, poly(isoprene)-block-poly(ethylene oxide)-block-poly(isoprene), which is a high molecular weight synthetic analog of naturally occurring lipids in terms of its self-assembled structure. This polymer was used to build stacked membranes composed of self-assembled lamellae. The resulting membranes resemble layers of natural lipid bilayers in living systems, but with superior mechanical properties suitable for real-world applications. The procedures used to synthesize the triblock copolymer resulted in membranes with increased stability due to the crosslinkability of the hydrophobic domains. Furthermore, the introduction of bridging hydrophilic domains leads to the preservation of the stacked membrane structure when the membrane is in contact with water, something that is challenging for diblock lamellae that tend to swell, and delaminate in aqueous solutions. This new method of membrane fabrication offers a practical model for making channel-based biomimetic membranes, which may lead to technological applications in reverse osmosis, nanofiltration, and ultrafiltration membranes.
Start page
179
End page
191
Volume
209
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ingeniería de materiales Biología celular, Microbiología
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85048373638
PubMed ID
Source
Faraday Discussions
ISSN of the container
1359-6640
Sponsor(s)
The authors acknowledge nancial support from the National Science Foundation CAREER grant (CBET-1552571) to MK for this work. Support was also provided through CBET-1705278 and DMR-1709522 for various aspects of this work.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus