Nanoporous Membranes of Densely Packed Carbon Nanotubes Formed by Lipid-Mediated Self-Assembly.

ABSTRACT: Nanofiltration technology faces the competing challenges of achieving high fluid flux through uniformly narrow pores of a mechanically and chemically stable filter. Supported dense-packed 2D-crystals of single-walled carbon nanotube (CNT) porins with ∼1 nm wide pores could, in principle, meet these challenges. However, such CNT membranes cannot currently be synthesized at high pore density. Here, we use computer simulations to explore lipid-mediated self-assembly as a route toward densely packed CNT membranes, motivated by the analogy to membrane-protein 2D crystallization. In large-scale coarse-grained molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, we find that CNTs in lipid membranes readily self-assemble into large clusters. Lipids trapped between the CNTs lubricate CNT repacking upon collisions

SUBMITTER: Vogele M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10880049 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature