CAREER: Self-Assembly of Zwitterionic Amphiphilic Copolymers for Membranes with Sharp, Tunable Pore Size

职业1553661-Asatekin。膜过滤是节能，简单，可扩展的，是产生清洁，安全的水和防止水污染的关键技术。大多数市售的膜由少数聚合物组成，并且在它们可以执行的分离类型方面受到限制。该项目旨在建立一个综合的研究和教育计划，重点是通过设计自组装形成纳米结构的聚合物来开发具有新功能的新型膜。具体而言，本研究将集中在控制一个新的家庭的膜的孔径，具有高通量，特殊的耐污染性，和尖锐的基于尺寸的选择性，制备涂层含两性离子的两亲性共聚物的多孔支持。这项研究将导致开发出改进的膜，用于现有技术（如肽分离和纺织废水处理）所不能满足的分离。它将在聚合物结构和膜性能之间建立联系，从而能够为特定应用合理设计膜材料。该研究将通过学生在多个阶段参与开发和执行聚合物科学和分离的推广活动，与教育活动系统完全整合。该团队将与塔夫茨工程教育和推广中心（CEEO）密切合作，为K-12学生开发新的推广活动。这些活动的想法将作为PI的本科生和研究生课程中的学期项目启动。它们将在马尔登的女孩夏季讲习班上进行测试，并通过塔夫茨学生教师推广导师计划（STOMP）在当地学校实施，并通过STOMP网络传播。该项目旨在建立一个综合的研究和教育计划，重点是设计自组装成功能性纳米结构的聚合物材料，从而实现所需的膜功能（例如选择性，耐污染性），并发现聚合物化学和结构，自组装纳米结构和膜应用功能之间的基本关系。本项目的具体研究目标是了解具有疏水性和两性离子基团的共聚物的化学结构和分子结构以及它们的加工方法如何影响（1）它们的自组装纳米结构和（2）它们作为膜材料在选择性分离中的性能。该团队的目标是通过改变聚合物结构和加工来控制这些膜的孔径，并开发基本的结构-性能-功能关系，作为具有可调，精确和单分散孔径的聚合物膜材料的设计规则。为此，该团队将合成两亲性共聚物，该共聚物以无规、梳状和星形嵌段结构将疏水和两性离子单体联合收割机结合起来。这些材料如何自组装将通过透射电子显微镜（TEM）和X射线散射进行研究。膜将通过用这些聚合物涂覆多孔载体来制备，并且孔径将通过过滤实验来确定。膜的孔径、渗透率和抗污染能力与自组装形态密切相关。结果将被用来编译设计规则或工具包的合理设计的膜材料，针对特定的分离，获得其渗透性，选择性和耐污染性从他们的自组装结构。该研究将与几个教育，推广和指导活动完全整合，例如为K-12学生开展推广活动，介绍聚合物科学，自组装和分离的概念，将拟议的研究纳入本科实验室课程和课程，以及本科生参与研究。

CAREER 1553661-Asatekin.Membrane filtration is energy efficient, simple, scalable, and a key technology for generating clean, safe water and for preventing water pollution. Most commercially available membranes are composed of a handful of polymers, and are limited in the types of separations they can perform. This project aims to build an integrated research and education plan centered on developing novel membranes with new capabilities by designing polymers that self-assemble to form nanostructures. Specifically, this research will focus on controlling the pore size of a novel family of membranes with high flux, exceptional fouling resistance, and sharp size-based selectivity, prepared by coating zwitterion-containing amphiphilic copolymers on porous supports. This research will lead to the development of improved membranes for separations underserved by existing technologies such as peptide separations and textile wastewater treatment. It will create a link between polymer structure and membrane performance that will enable the rational design of membrane materials for specific applications. The research will be fully integrated with a system of educational activities through the involvement of students at multiple stages in developing and performing outreach activities on polymer science and separations. The team will work closely with Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO) to develop new outreach activities for K-12 students. The activity ideas will be initiated as term projects in the PI's courses for undergraduate and graduate students. They will be tested in summer workshops for girls in Malden, MA and also implemented in local schools through the Tufts Student Teacher Outreach Mentorship Program (STOMP), and disseminated through the STOMP Network. This project aims to build an integrated research and education plan centered on designing polymeric materials that self-assemble into functional nanostructures that lead to the desired membrane functionality (e.g. selectivity, fouling resistance), and on discovering fundamental relationships that correlate polymer chemistry and architecture, self-assembled nanostructure, and function in membrane applications. The specific research objective of this project is to understand how the chemical structure and molecular architecture of copolymers with hydrophobic and zwitterionic groups, and their processing methods, affect (1) their self-assembled nanostructure and (2) their performance as membrane materials in selective separations. The team aims to control the pore size of these membranes by varying the polymer architecture and processing, and to develop fundamental structure-property-function relationships that serve as design rules for polymeric membrane materials with tunable, precise and monodispersed pore size. For this purpose, the team will synthesize amphiphilic copolymers that combine hydrophobic and zwitterionic monomers in random, comb and star-block architectures. How these materials self-assemble will be studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray scattering. Membranes will be made by coating porous supports with these polymers, and the pore size will be determined by filtration experiments. The pore size, permeability and fouling resistance of membranes will be correlated with the self-assembled morphology. The results will be used to compile design rules or a toolkit for the rational design of membrane materials targeted at specific separations that derive their permeability, selectivity and fouling resistance from their self-assembled structure. The research will be fully integrated with several educational, outreach and mentorship activities, such as the development of outreach activities for K-12 students that introduce concepts in polymer science, self-assembly and separations, incorporation of proposed research into undergraduate lab courses and classes, and involvement of undergraduate students in research.