Functional Reconstitution and Characterization Artificial WATER Channels For Desalination

Functional reconstitution and characterization artificial water channels for desalination

Yue-xiao Shen¹, Erol Licsandru², Mihail Barboiu², Manish Kumar*¹

¹Department of Chemical Engineering, Pennsylvania State Univerity, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

²Institut Europeen des Membranes, ENSCM-UMII-UMR CNRS 5635, Place Eugene Bataillon CC047, Montpellier, 34095, France

*Corresponding author: 155 Fenske Laboratory, Pennsylvania State Univerity, University Park, PA, 16802, USA, (814) 865-7519, manish.kumar@psu.edu

 Artificial water channels mimicking water-channel proteins known as aquaporins present in biological membranes could be basic materials robust as well as efficient desalination membranes. Aquaporins have high water permeability but may be challenging to stabilize in synthetic systems used for applications.  Imidazole compounds with urea ribbons can self-assemble into tubular architectures, mutually stabilized by strong hydrogen bonding with inner water in the solid state (Fig. 1 inset).¹ These compounds also self assemble in lipid bilayers and behave like natural water channels, which indicates that imidazole quartet may have potential to be an applicable water channel for sensors or separation. We are conducting a comprehensive evaluation of the water transport properties of these imidazole-quartet channels using stopped-flow light scattering.² Fig. 1 shows permeability data of lipid (PC/PS) and lipid-quartet channel (PC/PS/HC4) vesicles at different lipid-to-quartet ratios (LQR, w/w). When the imidazole compound ratio increased, the permeability of vesicles increased indicating the activity of the water channel.  In addition, we are reconstituting these channnels into block copolymer membranes at high packing density, as ideal materials for desalination membranes.²

References

1 Le Duc, Y. et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 50, 11366-11372 (2011).

2 Kumar, M. et al. J. Amer. Chem. Soc. 134, 18631-18637 (2012).

Emails: Yuexiao Shen (yxs174@psu.edu), Erol Licsandru (erol.licsandru@gmail.com), Mihai Barboiu (Mihail-Dumitru.Barboiu@univ-montp2.fr), Manish Kumar (manish.kumar@psu.edu).