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Oh H, Tu YM, Samineni L, De Respino S, Mehrafrooz B, Joshi H, Massenburg L, Lopez-Marques H, Elessawy N, Song W, Behera H, Dhiman R, Boorla VS, Kher K, Lin YC, Maranas C, Aksimentiev A, D Freeman B, Kumar M. Dehydrated Biomimetic Membranes with Skinlike Structure and Function. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2024. [PMID: 38598825 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.3c19572] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/12/2024]
Abstract
Novel vapor-permeable materials are sought after for applications in protective wear, energy generation, and water treatment. Current impermeable protective materials effectively block harmful agents but trap heat due to poor water vapor transfer. Here we present a new class of materials, vapor permeable dehydrated nanoporous biomimetic membranes (DBMs), based on channel proteins. This application for biomimetic membranes is unexpected as channel proteins and biomimetic membranes were assumed to be unstable under dry conditions. DBMs mimic human skin's structure to offer both high vapor transport and small molecule exclusion under dry conditions. DBMs feature highly organized pores resembling sweat pores in human skin, but at super high densities (>1012 pores/cm2). These DBMs achieved exceptional water vapor transport rates, surpassing commercial breathable fabrics by up to 6.2 times, despite containing >2 orders of magnitude smaller pores (1 nm vs >700 nm). These DBMs effectively excluded model biological agents and harmful chemicals both in liquid and vapor phases, again in contrast with the commercial breathable fabrics. Remarkably, while hydrated biomimetic membranes were highly permeable to liquid water, they exhibited higher water resistances after dehydration at values >38 times that of commercial breathable fabrics. Molecular dynamics simulations support our hypothesis that dehydration induced protein hydrophobicity increases which enhanced DBM performance. DBMs hold promise for various applications, including membrane distillation, dehumidification, and protective barriers for atmospheric water harvesting materials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hyeonji Oh
- McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, United States
| | - Yu-Ming Tu
- McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, United States
| | - Laximicharan Samineni
- McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, United States
| | - Sophie De Respino
- Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, United States
| | - Behzad Mehrafrooz
- Center for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States
- Department of Physics and Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States
| | - Himanshu Joshi
- Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad 502285, India
| | - Lynnicia Massenburg
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, United States
| | - Horacio Lopez-Marques
- McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, United States
| | - Nada Elessawy
- Department of Chemistry, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, United States
| | - Woochul Song
- Division of Environmental Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang 37673, South Korea
| | - Harekrushna Behera
- Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, United States
| | - Raman Dhiman
- McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, United States
| | - Veda Sheersh Boorla
- Department of Chemical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, United States
| | - Kartik Kher
- McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, United States
| | - Yi-Chih Lin
- Department of Chemistry, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, United States
| | - Costas Maranas
- Department of Chemical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, United States
| | - Aleksei Aksimentiev
- Center for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States
- Department of Physics and Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States
| | - Benny D Freeman
- McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, United States
| | - Manish Kumar
- McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, United States
- Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, United States
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