The objective of this project is to examine the transport rate in polymers as a means of assessing the feasibility of using synthetic polymerized vesicles as separation vehicles to concentrate selected species from dilute solutions. The unique advantage enjoyed by the polymerized vesicles is that their membranes are very thin, typically five nanometers. As such, the species transport rate can be greatly enhanced. Two specific issues will be addressed in this work: the effect of polymerization on membrane permeabilities; and the incorporation of chemical carriers with preserved functional activities in polymerized vesicles membranes. The labeled tracer technique will be used to study the membrane permeability. Marker leakage tests will be conducted to evaluate the stability of polymerized vesicles after the incorporation of chemical carriers. The activities of chemical carriers in polymeric membranes will be compared with those in monomeric membranes. Vesicles are of considerable research interest in the area of drug delivery, separation technology, solar energy conversion, catalysis, and chemical sensing. The transport results from this project will establish the long term framework for the study of polymerized vesicles as separation vehicles in an uphill active transport mode.
