Antibiotic Zwitterionic Nanogel Membrane: from Molecular Dynamics Simulation to Structure Manipulation

Abstract

Membrane separation has been considered as one of the most revolutionary technologies for the removal of oils, dyes, or other pollutants from wastewater. However, most membranes still face great challenges in water permeability, antifouling property, and even antibiotic ability. Possessing a pathogen-repellent surface is of great significance as it can enable membranes to minimize the presence of active viral pathogens. Herein, we demonstrate a distinct design with a molecular dynamics simulation-guided experiment for the surface domination of antibiotic zwitterionic nanogel membranes. The zwitterionic nanoparticle gel (ZNG)/Cu2+/glutaraldehyde (GA) synergy system is first simulated by introducing a ZNG into a preset CuCl2 brine solution and into a GA ethanol solution, in which the nanogel is observed to initially swell and subsequently shrink with the increase of GA concentration, leading to the membrane surface structure transition. Then, the corresponding experiments are performed under strict conditions, and the results suggest the surface structure transition from nanoparticles to network nanoflowers, which are consistent with the simulated results. The obtained network structure membrane with superhydrophilic and underwater superoleophobic abilities can significantly enhance the water permeability as high as almost 40% with its original rejection rate in comparison with unoptimizable ZNG-PVDF (polyvinylidene difluoride) membranes. Moreover, the obtained membrane achieves additional excellent antibiofouling capacity with the antibiotic efficiency exceeding 99.3%, manifesting remarkable potential for disinfection applications. By comparison, the conventional antibiotic methods generally improve the membrane’s antibiotic property solely but can hardly improve the other properties of the membrane. That is to say, our simulation combined with the experimental strategy significantly improved the zwitterionic membrane property in this work, which provides a new perspective on the design of high-performance functional materials.

Colloidal Chiral Carbon Dots: An Emerging System for Chiroptical Applications

“…Imaging [ 87] CDots Chiral solvent limonene -Imaging [ 88] CDots cholesteric liquid crystal g RTP = 1.09 circularly polarized room-temperature phosphorescent imaging [ 89] Tyrosine: Pro: Proline; Phe: phenylalanine; Cys: Cysteine; Gln: Glutamine; His: Histidine; Arg: Arginine; Glu: glutamic acid; lum: Luminescence; RTP: room-temperature phosphorescence; Asp: L-aspartic acid; Trp: tryptotophan; Thr: Threonine; GSH: Glutathione which is ac-CDots. The helical pitch of chiral hybrid films was varied from 420 to 740 nm regulated by the CNCs/PVA ratio.…”

Zwitterion-Modified Nanogel Responding to Temperature and Ionic Strength: A Dissipative Particle Dynamics Simulation

“…They designed the zwitterionic nanoparticle gel/ Cu 2+ /glutaraldehyde (GA) synergy system to modify the PVDF membrane surface; they noticed that as GA concentration changed, the membrane surface structure transformed. 29 Additionally, as mentioned above frequently, zwitterionic materials make significant sense in membrane antifouling performance, especially in resisting biofouling. 3,30 Zwitterions are born with specific features, such as an equal number of positive and negative charge moieties at the same segment side chains and maintaining overall charge neutrality, which makes them have good hydrophilicity, and a stable hydration layer can form to prevent foulant adsorption.…”

“…Jiang et al focused on membrane antifouling via the molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. They designed the zwitterionic nanoparticle gel/Cu 2+ /glutaraldehyde (GA) synergy system to modify the PVDF membrane surface; they noticed that as GA concentration changed, the membrane surface structure transformed …”

Antifouling Fibrous Membrane Enables High Efficiency and High-Flux Microfiltration for Water Treatment

“…To solve the abovementioned problems, many strategies have been explored to immobilize the hydrophilic components on the water-treatment membrane surface, such as additive blending , (e.g., hydrophilic component blending and copolymer construction), coating , (e.g., surface-active agent adsorption and physical coating), surface treatment − (e.g., plasma and UV irradiation treatment and chemically induced grafting), and chemical adhesives , (e.g., hydroxyl methyl silicone and polydopamine). However, these strategies show disadvantages such as difficulty to achieve ideal modification efficiency or loss of functions .…”