Artificial Water Channels: Towards Biomimetic Membranes for Desalination

Huang, Li‐Bo; Vincenzo, Maria Di; Li, Yuhao; Barboiu, Mihail

doi:10.1002/chem.202003470

Cited by 44 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 94 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Motivated by the superior performance of natural AQPs, researchers have expanded extensive effort in developing artificial water channels (AWCs) with simpler structures yet comparable or even exceeding water transport capabilities (14)(15)(16). In 2007, Percec and co-workers reported the pioneering work in this field, wherein dendritic dipeptides were employed for the construction of AWCs in lipid membrane (17).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fluorofoldamer-Based Salt- and Proton-Rejecting Artificial Water Channels for Ultrafast Water Transport

Shen

Roy

Joshi

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Here, we report on a novel class of fluorofoldamer-based artificial water channels (AWCs) that combines excellent water over ion selectivity with extraordinarily high water transport efficiency and structural simplicity and robustness. These AWCs were produced by a facile one-pot copolymerization reaction under mild conditions. Among these channels, the best-performing channel (AWC 1) is a n-C8H17-decorated foldamer nanotube with an average channel length of 2.8 nm and a pore diameter of 5.2 Å. AWC 1 demonstrates an ultrafast water conduction rate of 1.4 × 1010 H2O/s per channel, outperforming the archetypal biological water channel, aquaporin 1, by 27%, while excluding salts (i.e., NaCl and KCl) and protons. Unique to this class of channels, the inwardly facing C(sp2)-F moieties are proposed as being critical to enabling the ultrafast and superselective water transport properties observed.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fluorofoldamer-Based Salt- and Proton-Rejecting Artificial Water Channels for Ultrafast Water Transport

Shen

Roy

Joshi

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Lipid bilayer 4,5 and polymeric membranes 14 have been produced particularly for an understanding of the relationship between self-assembly of waters and their dynamic translocation within single channels. 15 They have also been proven to have a huge impact on improving the production of pure water via desalination with hybrid materials. 14 The filtration perform-ances are highly dependent on how water transport performances translate from the single-channel conduits in bilayer membranes to multichannel meter-scale membranes used for industrial desalination.…”

Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…14 The filtration perform-ances are highly dependent on how water transport performances translate from the single-channel conduits in bilayer membranes to multichannel meter-scale membranes used for industrial desalination. 14,15 It is well-known that self-assembly of the monomers to form complex channel architectures strongly depends on the nature of their host matrix. In such a scenario, the self-assembled AWCs may adapt their morphologies to external host environments, toward the construction of single channels in bilayer membranes 8 or to solid percolated multichannels in macroscopic polymeric membranes.…”

Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bilayer versus Polymeric Artificial Water Channel Membranes: Structural Determinants for Enhanced Filtration Performances

et al. 2021

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Artificial water channels (AWCs) and their natural aquaporin counterparts selectively transport water. They represent a tremendous source of inspiration to devise biomimetic membranes for several applications, including desalination. They contain variable water-channel constructs with adaptative architectures and morphologies. Herein, we critically discuss the structural details that can impact the performances of biomimetic I quartets, obtained via adaptive self-assembly of alkylureidoethylimidazoles HC4−HC18 in bilayer or polyamide (PA) membranes. We first explore the performances in bilayer membranes, identifying that hydrophobicity is an essential key parameter to increase water permeability. We compare various I quartets with different hydrophobic tails (from HC4 to HC18), and we reveal that a huge increase in single-channel water permeability, from 10 4 to 10 7 water molecules/s/channel, is obtained by increasing the size of the alkyl tail. Quantitative assessment of AWC−PA membranes shows that water permeability increases roughly from 2.09 to 3.85 L m −2 h −1 bar −1 , for HC4 and HC6 reverse osmosis membranes, respectively, while maintaining excellent NaCl rejection (99.25−99.51%). Meanwhile, comparable HC8 loading induces a drop of performance reminiscent of a defective membrane formation. We show that the production of nanoscale sponge-like water channels can be obtained with insoluble, low soluble, and low dispersed AWCs, explaining the observed subpar performance. We conclude that optimal solubility enabling breakthrough performance must be considered to not only maximize the inclusion and the stability in the bilayer membranes but also achieve an effective homogeneous distribution of percolated particles that minimizes the defects in hybrid polyamide membranes.

show abstract

“…This field is rapidly developing and global events such as the 2018 Artificial Water Channels Faraday Discussions meeting 17 have seen extensive discussions covering various fields including biology, physics, and chemistry. To gain more insights into this interesting direction of research, authoritative reviews are readily available [18][19][20] . Additionally, a review written by the authors of this paper providing clarity on the subtle differences between the terms bioinspiration and biomimetics is also now available 21 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A bibliometric study on biomimetic and bioinspired membranes for water filtration

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Insights into the biological channels and synthetic pore-forming assemblies have elucidated many fundamental aspects of selective water and solute transport over the last few decades. This has led to the development of novel technologies with unique selectivity and permeability. In terms of membrane separation technology, this development has proceeded by adapting either of two approaches: (i) one where biological channel proteins are reconstituted in suitable materials mimicking the biological bilayer membrane and (ii) one where selective transport is mimicked in synthetic structures. The development of water filtration membranes in the former approach takes advantage of aquaporin proteins as representative building blocks and that of carbon nanotubes and molecular pore-forming assemblies in the latter approach. The first approach is often referred to as the field dominated by biomimetic membranes and the latter referred to as artificial water channels. In this study, a bibliometric analysis was conducted to investigate trends in these two areas based on growing publication trends, peer-reviewed journal selection, countries, institutions, authors, and collaborative networks. A total of 3199 records available from Scopus between 1962 and 2021 were extracted and analyzed. The results showed strong international collaborations and highlighted leading researchers and hubs of excellence in these two areas. This is very timely considering that the UN climate change conference (COP26) in Glasgow, UK later this year will bring focus to the global need for water treatment technologies. This work can serve as a quick reference for early-career researchers and industries working in the area of membrane development for water purification/filtration.

show abstract

Artificial Water Channels: Towards Biomimetic Membranes for Desalination

Cited by 44 publications

References 94 publications

Fluorofoldamer-Based Salt- and Proton-Rejecting Artificial Water Channels for Ultrafast Water Transport

Fluorofoldamer-Based Salt- and Proton-Rejecting Artificial Water Channels for Ultrafast Water Transport

Bilayer versus Polymeric Artificial Water Channel Membranes: Structural Determinants for Enhanced Filtration Performances

A bibliometric study on biomimetic and bioinspired membranes for water filtration

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About