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Development of Nanostructured Water Treatment Membranes Based on Thermotropic Liquid Crystals: Molecular Design of Sub-Nanoporous Materials.

ABSTRACT: Supply of safe fresh water is currently one of the most important global issues. Membranes technologies are essential to treat water efficiently with low costs and energy consumption. Here, the development of self-organized nanostructured water treatment membranes based on ionic liquid crystals composed of ammonium, imidazolium, and pyridinium moieties is reported. Membranes with preserved 1D or 3D self-organized sub-nanopores are obtained by photopolymerization of ionic columnar or bicontinuous cubic liquid crystals. These membranes show salt rejection ability, ion selectivity, and excellent water permeability. The relationships between the structures and the transport properties of water molecules and ionic solutes in the sub-nanopores in the membranes are examined by molecular dynamics simulations. The results suggest that the volume of vacant space in the nanochannel greatly affects the water and ion permeability.

SUBMITTER: Sakamoto T

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5770667 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Development of Nanostructured Water Treatment Membranes Based on Thermotropic Liquid Crystals: Molecular Design of Sub-Nanoporous Materials.

Sakamoto Takeshi T Ogawa Takafumi T Nada Hiroki H Nakatsuji Koji K Mitani Masato M Soberats Bartolome B Kawata Ken K Yoshio Masafumi M Tomioka Hiroki H Sasaki Takao T Kimura Masahiro M Henmi Masahiro M Kato Takashi T

Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) 20171218 1

Supply of safe fresh water is currently one of the most important global issues. Membranes technologies are essential to treat water efficiently with low costs and energy consumption. Here, the development of self-organized nanostructured water treatment membranes based on ionic liquid crystals composed of ammonium, imidazolium, and pyridinium moieties is reported. Membranes with preserved 1D or 3D self-organized sub-nanopores are obtained by photopolymerization of ionic columnar or bicontinuous ...[more]

PMID: 29375969

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Project description:Many current treatments for the reclamation of contaminated water sources are chemical-intensive, energy-intensive, and/or require posttreatment due to unwanted by-product formation. We demonstrate that through the integration of nanostructured materials, enzymatic catalysis, and iron-catalyzed free radical reactions within pore-functionalized synthetic membrane platforms, we are able to conduct environmentally important oxidative reactions for toxic organic degradation and detoxification from water without the addition of expensive or harmful chemicals. In contrast to conventional, passive membrane technologies, our approach utilizes two independently controlled, nanostructured membranes in a stacked configuration for the generation of the necessary oxidants. These include biocatalytic and organic/inorganic (polymer/iron) nanocomposite membranes. The bioactive (top) membrane contains an electrostatically immobilized enzyme for the catalytic production of one of the main reactants, hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)), from glucose. The bottom membrane contains either immobilized iron ions or ferrihydrite/iron oxide nanoparticles for the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide to form powerful free radical oxidants. By permeating (at low pressure) a solution containing a model organic contaminant, such as trichlorophenol, with glucose in oxygen-saturated water through the membrane stack, significant contaminant degradation was realized. To illustrate the effectiveness of this membrane platform in real-world applications, membrane-immobilized ferrihydrite/iron oxide nanoparticles were reacted with hydrogen peroxide to form free radicals for the degradation of a chlorinated organic contaminant in actual groundwater. Although we establish the development of these nanostructured materials for environmental applications, the practical and methodological advances demonstrated here permit the extension of their use to applications including disinfection and/or virus inactivation.

Project description:We report that specific anions (of sodium salts) added to aqueous phases at molar concentrations can trigger rapid, orientational ordering transitions in water-immiscible, thermotropic liquid crystals (LCs; e.g., nematic phase of 4'-pentyl-4-cyanobiphenyl, 5CB) contacting the aqueous phases. Anions classified as chaotropic, specifically iodide, perchlorate, and thiocyanate, cause 5CB to undergo continuous, concentration-dependent transitions from planar to homeotropic (perpendicular) orientations at LC-aqueous interfaces within 20 s of addition of the anions. In contrast, anions classified as relatively more kosmotropic in nature (fluoride, sulfate, phosphate, acetate, chloride, nitrate, bromide, and chlorate) do not perturb the LC orientation from that observed without added salts (i.e., planar orientation). Surface pressure-area isotherms of Langmuir films of 5CB supported on aqueous salt solutions reveal ion-specific effects ranking in a manner similar to the LC ordering transitions. Specifically, chaotropic salts stabilized monolayers of 5CB to higher surface pressures and areal densities (12.6 mN/m at 27 Å(2)/molecule for NaClO(4)) and thus smaller molecular tilt angles (30° from the surface normal for NaClO(4)) than kosmotropic salts (5.0 mN/m at 38 Å(2)/molecule with a corresponding tilt angle of 53° for NaCl). These results and others reported herein suggest that anion-specific interactions with 5CB monolayers lead to bulk LC ordering transitions. Support for the proposition that these ion-specific interactions involve the nitrile group was obtained by using a second LC with nitrile groups (E7; ion-specific effects similar to 5CB were observed) and a third LC with fluorine-substituted aromatic groups (TL205; weak dipole and no ion-specific effects were measured). Finally, we also establish that anion-induced orientational transitions in micrometer-thick LC films involve a change in the easy axis of the LC. Overall, these results provide new insights into ionic phenomena occurring at LC-aqueous interfaces, and reveal that the long-range ordering of LC oils can amplify ion-specific interactions at these interfaces into macroscopic ordering transitions.

Dataset Information

Development of Nanostructured Water Treatment Membranes Based on Thermotropic Liquid Crystals: Molecular Design of Sub-Nanoporous Materials.

Publications

Development of Nanostructured Water Treatment Membranes Based on Thermotropic Liquid Crystals: Molecular Design of Sub-Nanoporous Materials.

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