Title：Artificial WaterChannels-toward Biomimetic Membranes for Desalination

Speaker：Prof. Mihail Barboiu (CNRS)

Time：November12th,2024, 14:00pm

Location: C3-c204, Guangzhou International Campus,SCUT

Abstract:

Thislecture discusses the incipient development of the biomimetic artificial waterchannels systems. We include only systems that integrate synthetic elements intheir water selective translocation unit. Therefore, we exclude peptidechannels because their sequences derive from the proteins in natural channels.We review many of the natural systems involved in water and related protontransport processes. We describe how these systems can fit within our primarygoal of maintaining natural function within bio-assisted artificial systems. Inthe last part, we present several inspiring breakthroughs from the last decadein the field of biomimetic artificial water channels. All these examplesdemonstrate how the novel interactive water-channels can parallel biomolecularsystems. At the same time these simpler artificial water channels offer a meansof understanding water structures useful for many biological scenarios.Moreover, they can be used for the preparation of highly selective membranesfor desalination.

Brief Biography：

Mihail Barboiugraduated from University Politehnica of Bucharest and received his PhD in 1998from the University of Montpellier. He is CNRS Research Director at theInstitut Europeen des Membranes in Montpellier and Fellow of Royal Society ofChemistry.A major focus of his research is Dynamic Constitutional Chemistry towardDynamic Interactive Systems: adaptive biomimetic membranes, delivery devicesetc. Author of more than 350 scientific publications and 480 conferences andlectures, Dr Barboiu has received the EURYI Award in Chemistry in 2004 and theRSC Surfaces and Interfaces Award in 2015 for the development of ArtificialWater Channels.