Water purification through cross-linked proteoliposomes using a preconcentrator

초록

Aquaporin is the most efficient filter in nature due to its high water selectivity and permeability. However, the manufactural difficulties of efficient and large scaled aquaporin embedded membrane preclude its industrial applications. It is mainly attributed to the fragility of a lipid bilayer or other biomimetic membrane. We have created robust membranes by cross-linking liposomes with linkers. In addition, we concentrated liposomes effectively using a microfluidic preconcentrator which has nanochannels formed by the electrical breakdown of a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane at a high electrical bias with no nano-lithography. Proteoliposomes were continuously concentrated at the target position by applying an electric field through the junction of micro- and nanochannels. Amine-terminated proteoliposomes embedded with aquaporin were conjugated to the surface of the PDMS device via EDC/NHS reaction. As a result, the durability of proteoliposome was increased to withstand up to∼9 atm and water purification was demonstrated using our device.