Application of Robust Aquaporin Incorporated Biomimetic Membrane in NF and FO

       Aquaporin (AQP)-containing, planar, biomimetic membranes hold great potential in water purification and seawater desalination, due to the excellent permeability and the selectivity of AQP. However, there remain many challenges to production of robust and defect-free supported lipid bilayer (SLB) biomimetic membranes. In this work, we improved the stability of the AQP incorporated SLB membrane by layer-by-layer (LbL) method or covalent bonding method. The resulting biomimetic membranes exhibited excellent separation performances in nanofiltration (NF) and/or forward osmosis (FO) as well as robust structures that withstand a high operation pressure (in NF test) for a relatively long time. AQP show high permeability in SLB membranes. Furthermore, the AQP-containing SLB membranes possessed extra stability. When rinsed by a 0.24 mmol/L TritonX-100 (TX-100) solution for 5 minutes, the water flux and rejection (or reverse solute flux) of the biomimetic membrane only slightly changed. This research presents an effective method for preparation of biomimetic membrane with good separation performance and enhanced stability under harsh conditions.