(18d) Creating Biomimetic Membranes with Uniform Subnanometer Pore By Co-Assembly of Well-Oriented Lamellar Block Copolymer with Artificial Channels

Membranes with uniform subnanometer pore sizes are desired for applications such as water purification, small molecule separations and gas separations. Traditional membranes are subject to permeability-selectivity trade-offs due to widely distributed pore size. Excellent transport abilities including both high flux and high selectivity are routinely achieved in natural biological membranes, thus it is a promising strategy to mimic nature for improving membrane performances. Here we present a new fabrication strategy of channel-based membranes through co-assembly of amphiphilic block copolymers and artificial channels. Specifically, cross-linkable triblock copolymers, which is a high molecular weight synthetic analog to lipid, was used to form lamellae-stacked membrane matrix. Through co-assembly, the artificial channels can be incorporated as a subnanometer separation elements. Such a membrane resembles natural lipid membranes in living system with better mechanical properties due to cross-linking of the hydrophobic domains and the bridging hydrophilic domains. The fabrication strategy reported here could promote the construction of more channel-based membranes with desired properties, such as ion separation, responsiveness and sensing.