High Virus Removal by Self-Organized Nanostructured 2D Liquid-Crystalline Smectic Membranes for Water Treatment

Daniel Kuo; Miaomiao Liu; K R Sunil Kumar; Kazuma Hamaguchi; Kian Ping Gan; Takeshi Sakamoto; Takafumi Ogawa; Riki Kato; Nobuyoshi Miyamoto; Hiroki Nada; Masahiro Kimura; Masahiro Henmi; Hiroyuki Katayama; Takashi Kato

doi:10.1002/smll.202001721

High Virus Removal by Self-Organized Nanostructured 2D Liquid-Crystalline Smectic Membranes for Water Treatment

Small. 2020 Jun;16(23):e2001721. doi: 10.1002/smll.202001721. Epub 2020 May 4.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan.
² Department of Urban Engineering, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan.
³ Global Environment Research Laboratories, Toray Industries, Inc., Sonoyama, Otsu, Shiga, 520-0842, Japan.
⁴ Department of Material Science and Production Engineering, Fukuoka Institute of Technology, Wajiro-Higashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka, 811-0295, Japan.
⁵ National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Onogawa, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8569, Japan.
⁶ Technology Center, Toray Industries, Inc., Nihonbashi-Muromachi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, 103-8666, Japan.

PMID: 32363808
DOI: 10.1002/smll.202001721

Abstract

To obtain high quality of drinking water free from biocontaminants is especially important issue. A new strategy employing smectic liquid-crystalline ionic membranes exhibiting 2D structures of layered nanochannels for water treatment is proposed for efficient virus removal and sufficient water flux. The smectic A (SmA) liquid-crystalline membranes obtained by in situ polymerization of an ionic mesogenic monomer are examined for removal of three distinct viruses with small size: Qβ bacteriophage, MS2 bacteriophage, and Aichi virus. The semi-bilayer structure of the SmA significantly obstructs the virus penetration with an average log reduction value of 7.3 log₁₀ or the equivalent of reducing 18 million viruses down to 1. Furthermore, the layered nanochannels of the SmA liquid crystal allow efficient water permeation compared to other types of liquid-crystalline membrane consisting of nanopores.

Keywords: liquid crystals; membranes; self-assembly; virus rejection; water treatment.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Liquid Crystals*
Membranes, Artificial
Nanostructures*
Viruses*
Water Purification*

Substances

Membranes, Artificial