Bioinspired Membranes for Water Purification

受污染的水是一个复杂的全球社会经济问题，影响着人和动物的健康，并对农业和渔业、娱乐活动和交通运输等行业产生重大影响。世界卫生组织(WHO)最近估计，受污染的水每年造成近5亿人死亡。在跨行业的广泛应用中，目前的过滤技术是无效的，依赖于膜的特定物理化学性质和要去除的目标分子(S)，并且它们的制造往往需要复杂且昂贵的多步骤过程，相关的能源成本很高。在这个项目中，我们将开发生物仿生膜作为水净化技术的新解决方案，以最小的能量输入选择性地去除污染物。利用先进的聚合物合成策略，我们将开发新的定制聚合物，这种聚合物可以提取能够以极高的特异性跨膜移动分子的跨膜蛋白，并使它们能够随后并入仿生人造膜。这将提供具有前所未有的分子选择性和专一性的净水膜。本项目开发的新膜技术将有助于推进和发展膜科学的格局。设计的平台材料和方法将可转移到更多的膜过滤和水净化应用中，并将使通用制造工艺能够提供高性能、可重复使用、可回收的设备，从而为循环经济做出贡献。联合国在关于清洁水和卫生设施的可持续发展目标6中认识到了这种新系统的必要性。

Polluted water is a complex global socioeconomic issue that affects human and animal health, and greatly impacts industries such as agriculture and fishing, recreational activities and transportation. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently estimated that contaminated water is responsible for almost 500 million deaths per year. In a wide range of applications across sectors, current filtration technologies are ineffective, relying on the specific physicochemical properties of the membrane and the target molecule(s) to be removed, and their manufacture often requires complex and expensive multi-step processes with high associated energy costs.In this project, we will develop bioinspired membranes as new solutions for water purification technologies, selectively removing contaminants with minimal energy input requirements. Utilising advanced polymer synthesis strategies, we will develop new bespoke polymers that can extract transmembrane proteins capable of moving molecules across membrane with exquisite specificity and enable their subsequent incorporation into biomimetic artificial membranes. This will afford water purification membranes with previously unrivalled molecular selectivity and specificity.The new membrane technology developed in this project will help to advance and evolve the landscape of membrane science. The platform materials and approaches devised will be transferrable to additional membrane filtration and water purification applications and will enable universal manufacturing processes to afford high-performance reusable, recyclable devices that can contribute to a circular economy. The need for such new systems is recognised by the UN with Sustainable Development Goal 6 on clean water and sanitation.