학계·기업·조직 등 많은 국제적 연구진에 따르면 합성 멤브레인(synthetic membrane)은 자기 조립 방식으로 쉽게 제작되어 수질을 더 나은 방향으로 정화시킬 수 있다. 이 생체 모방 멤브레인은 지질 및 지방분자로 구성되며, 단백질이 추가된 분자가 병렬 채널을 활용해 2차원 구조로 천연 멤브레인과 자기 조립 방식으로 물을 전환한다.

화학공학과 조교수인 Manish Kumar은 “천연 멤브레인은 매우 효율적이며, 단백질을 전환하는 이러한 생물학적 멤브레인 기술은 매우 놀랍다”며 “이는 합성 시스템에 복제하기 어려운 기능을 가지고 있다”고 말했다.

According to an international team of researchers from a wide range of universities, businesses and organizations, a synthetic membrane that self assembles and is easily produced may lead to better water purification.

This biomimetic membrane is composed of lipids -- fat molecules -- and protein-appended molecules that form water channels that transfer water at the rate of natural membranes and self-assembles into 2-dimensional structures with parallel channels.

"Nature does things very efficiently, and transport proteins are amazing machines present in biological membranes," said Manish Kumar, assistant professor of chemical engineering, Penn State. "They have functions that are hard to replicate in synthetic systems."

The researchers developed a second-generation synthetic water channel that improves on earlier attempts to mimic aquaporins -- natural water channel proteins -- by being more stable and easier to manufacture.

The peptide-appended pillar[5]arenes (PAP) are also more easily produced and aligned than carbon nanotubes, another material under investigation for membrane separation.

"We were surprised to see transport rates approaching the 'holy grail' number of a billion water molecules per channel per second," said Kumar. "We also found that these artificial channels like to associate with each other in a membrane to make 2-dimentional arrays with a very high pore density."

The researchers consider that the PAP membranes are an order of magnitude better than the first-generation artificial water channels reported to date. The propensity for these channels to automatically form densely packed arrays leads to a variety of engineering applications.

"The most obvious use of these channels is perhaps to make highly efficient water purification membranes," said Kumar.

[출처 = Water World / 2015년 7월 31일]