Title
Biomimetic Separation of Transport and Matrix Functions in Lamellar Block Copolymer Channel-Based Membranes
Date Issued
23 July 2019
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
research article
Author(s)
Lang C.
Ye D.
Song W.
Yao C.
Tu Y.M.
Capparelli C.
Lanasa J.A.
Hickner M.A.
Gomez E.W.
Hickey R.J.
Kumar M.
Abstract
Cell membranes control mass, energy, and information flow to and from the cell. In the cell membrane a lipid bilayer serves as the barrier layer, with highly efficient molecular machines, membrane proteins, serving as the transport elements. In this way, highly specialized transport properties are achieved by these composite materials by segregating the matrix function from the transport function using different components. For example, cell membranes containing aquaporin proteins can transport -4 billion water molecules per second per aquaporin while rejecting all other molecules including salts, a feat unmatched by any synthetic system, while the impermeable lipid bilayer provides the barrier and matrix properties. True separation of functions between the matrix and the transport elements has been difficult to achieve in conventional solute separation synthetic membranes. In this study, we created membranes with distinct matrix and transport elements through designed coassembly of solvent-stable artificial (peptide-appended pillar[5]arene, PAP5) or natural (gramicidin A) model channels with block copolymers into lamellar multilayered membranes. Self-assembly of a lamellar structure from cross-linkable triblock copolymers was used as a scalable replacement for lipid bilayers, offering better stability and mechanical properties. By coassembly of channel molecules with block copolymers, we were able to synthesize nanofiltration membranes with sharp selectivity profiles as well as uncharged ion exchange membranes exhibiting ion selectivity. The developed method can be used for incorporation of different artificial and biological ion and water channels into synthetic polymer membranes. The strategy reported here could promote the construction of a range of channel-based membranes and sensors with desired properties, such as ion separations, stimuli responsiveness, and high sensitivity.
Start page
8292
End page
8302
Volume
13
Issue
7
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ingeniería química
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85070486076
PubMed ID
Source
ACS Nano
ISSN of the container
19360851
Sponsor(s)
This work was primarily funded by National Science Foundation (NSF) grants CBET-1262 1552571, CBET-1443 1804836, and DMR-7623 1709522, as well as U.S. Army CERL W9132T-16-2-12640004-P00003. This work was also supported using start-up funds from Penn State University to R.J.H. The GISAXS characterization used resources of the Advanced Light Source, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility, under contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231. The authors acknowledge Eric Schaible for the help with GISAXS measurements. AFM, SEM, and XPS measurements were taken at the Materials Characterization Lab (MCL) in the Materials Research Institute (MRI) at Penn State University. We thank Tim Tighe for the help with AFM and Jeff Shallenberger for the XPS measurements and analysis.
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