基于水通道蛋白的水处理仿生膜研究进展

Recent progress on AQP based biomimetic membranes for water treatment

膜分离技术目前已广泛应用于饮用水净化、污废水处理和海水淡化等各领域。传统的膜分离技术普遍存在水通量低和污染物截留率低等缺陷,而水通道蛋白(AQP)由于对水分子具有极高的选择渗透性,因此将水通道蛋白嵌入到传统的水处理膜中,可使制得的仿生膜发挥水通道蛋白的优势而具有更高的水通量及脱盐率。通过对近年来水通道蛋白仿生膜的相关研究进行归纳,介绍了水通道蛋白的分子结构和特异性透过功能,对各类仿生膜的制备方法及膜处理性能进行了总结和比较。最后,指出当前仿生膜技术存在机械强度差、化学性质不稳定及膜制备面积小等缺陷,并提出今后在提高仿生膜上AQP分子稳定性的同时应开发新型的膜制备技术和水通道材料,为制备高性能的仿生膜提供新的思路。

Membrane separation technologies have been widely applied in drinking water purification,waste water treatment, seawater desalination, and many other fields. Traditional membrane technologies,such as reverse osmosis（RO）and ultrafiltration（UF）,have gained rapid development but are still limited due to their low water flux or low salt rejection rate. Aquaporin（AQP）,one kind of protein vastly existed in cell membranes,has special＂water channels＂which only allow water molecules to pass through but reject all the other molecules and ions. Thus,when incorporating AQPs into traditional membranes,the produced biomimetic membranes could exert AQP＇s superiorities and obtain the properties of enhanced water flux and desalination rate. This paper introduced the structure and fast water transport mechanism of aquaporins,then generalized different AQP based biomimetic membrane preparation methods and compared the performance improvements of these membranes. Limitations of current biomimetic membranes were also addressed,such as difficulty to scale up and instability under extreme conditions. Finally,ideas of developing new AQP loading techniques and fabricating new＂water channel＂materials were presented.