Foldamer-based ultrapermeable and highly selective artificial water channels that exclude protons
Journal
Nature Nanotechnology
Journal Volume
16
Journal Issue
8
Start Page
911
End Page
917
ISSN
17483387
Date Issued
2021
Author(s)
Roy, Arundhati
Shen, Jie
Joshi, Himanshu
Song, Woochul
Chowdhury, Ratul
Ye, Ruijuan
Li, Ning
Ren, Changliang
Kumar, Manish
Aksimentiev, Aleksei
Zeng, Huaqiang
Abstract
The outstanding capacity of aquaporins (AQPs) for mediating highly selective superfast water transport1–7 has inspired recent development of supramolecular monovalent ion-excluding artificial water channels (AWCs). AWC-based bioinspired membranes are proposed for desalination, water purification and other separation applications8–18. While some recent progress has been made in synthesizing AWCs that approach the water permeability and ion selectivity of AQPs, a hallmark feature of AQPs—high water transport while excluding protons—has not been reproduced. We report a class of biomimetic, helically folded pore-forming polymeric foldamers that can serve as long-sought-after highly selective ultrafast water-conducting channels with performance exceeding those of AQPs (1.1 × 1010 water molecules per second for AQP1), with high water-over-monovalent-ion transport selectivity (~108 water molecules over Cl– ion) conferred by the modularly tunable hydrophobicity of the interior pore surface. The best-performing AWC reported here delivers water transport at an exceptionally high rate, namely, 2.5 times that of AQP1, while concurrently rejecting salts (NaCl and KCl) and even protons. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.
Publisher
Nature Research
Type
journal article