Nature-inspired synthetic oligourea foldamer channels allow water transport with high salt rejection
Résumé
Short helical amphipathic oligourea foldamers were designed with distinct hydrophobic and hydrophilic faces. Two of the foldamers (H2OC1 and H2OC2) obtained by solid phase synthesis self-assembled into channel-type nanostructures that show efficient water permeability across lipid membranes while rejecting ions. A self-assembled quaternary structure with two superhelical scaffolds results in the formation of 4.8 and 6.4 A ˚inner pores that were observed in the crystal packing of H2OC1. Both pores have hydrophilic interior and hydrophobic exterior surfaces. Our findings demonstrate the channel-forming ability of oligourea foldamers in lipid bilayers, and such novel artificial water channels could be beneficial for water purification applications.
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