Highly Efficient Virus Rejection with Self-Organized Membranes Based on a Crosslinked Bicontinuous Cubic Liquid Crystal

Nicolas Marets; Daniel Kuo; Jason R Torrey; Takeshi Sakamoto; Masahiro Henmi; Hiroyuki Katayama; Takashi Kato

doi:10.1002/adhm.201700252

Highly Efficient Virus Rejection with Self-Organized Membranes Based on a Crosslinked Bicontinuous Cubic Liquid Crystal

Adv Healthc Mater. 2017 Jul;6(14). doi: 10.1002/adhm.201700252. Epub 2017 May 9.

Authors

Nicolas Marets¹, Daniel Kuo¹, Jason R Torrey², Takeshi Sakamoto¹, Masahiro Henmi³, Hiroyuki Katayama², Takashi Kato¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan.
² Department of Urban Engineering, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan.
³ Toray Industries, Inc., Nihonbashi-Muromachi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, 103-8666, Japan.

PMID: 28485109
DOI: 10.1002/adhm.201700252

Abstract

To remove viruses from water, the use of self-assembling liquid crystals is presented as a novel method for the synthesis of membranes with a regular pore size (below 1 nm) and controlled pore structures. Nanostructured bicontinuous cubic liquid-crystalline (LC) thin films are photopolymerized onto a polysulfone support layer. It is found that these membranes reject the virus, Qβ bacteriophage (≈20 nm diameter) by >99.9999%. Prepressurization of the membrane appears to enhance their virus rejection properties. This is the first example of nanostructured LC membranes that are used for virus rejection, for which they show great potential.

Keywords: Qβ bacteriophages; bicontinuous cubic phases; liquid crystals; membranes; virus rejection.

MeSH terms

Allolevivirus / chemistry*
Liquid Crystals / chemistry*
Membranes, Artificial*
Nanostructures / chemistry*

Substances

Membranes, Artificial