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Bioinspired and biomimetic membranes using ion channel proteins and designer peptides conjugated with graphene oxide for selective ion transport

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Abstract

Recent advances in synthetic membrane technologies for purification and desalination of water and biotechnology are actively pursued. However, limited performance of current solid-state membranes calls for novel formulations offering both high permeability (ion and water flux) and ion differentiation (selectivity), considered as antagonist features. We report the development of hybrid nanoporous membranes comprising polycarbonate track-etched pores in which biological ion channels Gramicidin-A, alpha-hemolysin (α-HL), and outer-membrane protein F (OmpF) aquaporins are confined, and graphene oxide-conjugated cobalt ion-selective binding peptide motifs (Copep) are adsorbed, referred as bioinspired and biomimetic approaches, respectively. These solid-state nanoporous membranes offer scalability, mechanical robustness, selectivity, controlled pore dimension, and shape, for sustainable water production. The ion permeability, ion diffusion coefficient, and selective ion recognition are evaluated via nanofiltration, cell diffusion kinetics, and UV–Visible absorption spectroscopy. The experimental findings elucidate key performance parameters (ion confinement, rich surface chemistry, peptide-induced channel for selective ion transport) and provide new avenues for artificial ion channels by synergistic combination of eco-friendly material design such as GO enabled bio-molecular recognition chemistry.

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Acknowledgments

The author (S.G.) gratefully acknowledges the financial support by NSF-MRI (Grant# 1429563), KY NSF EPSCoR RSP (Subaward# 3200000271-17-212), and co-author (T.R.) for researcher scholarship, and internal RCAP WKU Foundation award. The undergraduate student co-authors (T.R., B.E.) are grateful to John Andersland (Biology) and Naomi Rowland (Biology) for scanning electron microscopy and confocal fluorescence spectroscopy training, respectively.

Funding

National Science Foundation-MRI 1429563, Sanju Gupta

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    S. Gupta

  2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY, 42101, USA

    S. Gupta, T. Robinson & B. Evans

  3. Biotechnology Center, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY, 42101, USA

    S. Gupta

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  1. S. Gupta
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SG contributed to conceptualization, investigation, data curation, analysis, supervision, funding acquisition, resources, writing—original draft, reviewing, and editing. TR contributed to data curation and analysis. BE contributed to data curation and analysis.

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Correspondence to S. Gupta.

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Gupta, S., Robinson, T. & Evans, B. Bioinspired and biomimetic membranes using ion channel proteins and designer peptides conjugated with graphene oxide for selective ion transport. Journal of Materials Research 38, 3519–3535 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1557/s43578-023-01076-9

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