The goal of this CAREER program is to utilize the principal investigator's (PI's) diverse industrial and academic experience to build an integrated research, education ,and outreach program centered on bioinspired membranes for water treatment. This program is relevant to food-energy-water nexus problems and solutions. Artificial water channels, a new class of channels made using organic synthesis, were recently demonstrated by the PI to have permeability properties similar to biological water channels, or aquaporins, and their current synthetic analogs, carbon nanotubes. This research approach has the potential to be a "game changer" in membrane treatment of water.
The technical goal of this project is to design and synthesize a new class of membranes based on peptide-appended pillar[5]arene channels. The central hypothesis of the proposed work is: Solvent compatible channels will enable the scalable synthesis of practical ultra-permeable channel-based membranes. The scientific research objectives of the program are: 1) Understand the effect of angstrom-scale pore properties of diameter, hydrophobicity, and charge, on selectivity and water permeability using model peptide-appended pillar[5]arene channels; 2) Explore the compatibility of peptide-appended pillar[5]arene channels with block copolymer membranes and use this knowledge to maximize channel packing; and, 3) Correlate the structure and transport properties of peptide-appended pillar[5]arene block copolymer membranes. The tunable pore size will allow application of these membranes across critical areas of water treatment and reuse including: 1) drinking water treatment, 2) brackish water and seawater desalination, and, 3) wastewater reuse. The compact nature of membrane technology will allow its implementation in decentralized treatment as well as in low footprint centralized treatment in dense urban areas. Overall, given the increasing pressure on water sources and the interconnectedness of energy, food, and water operations, success in the proposed program can have a significant impact on the food-energy-water nexus. The proposed program will utilize bioinspired membranes and their connection to water transport in natural systems, such as plants and the human body, to engage diverse students at all levels (K-12 though graduate) in multidisciplinary research and education activities. The three specific educational objectives of the proposed program are: 1) Provide early stage mentorship to a diverse multidisciplinary group of engineering undergraduates (UGs) through first year seminars and research engagement; 2) Evaluate four UG research engagement models common at universities; and 3) Expand and diversify a current water-science-based K-12 summer camp and assess its impact on participants.
