1
|
Murali A, Kumar PBS, Satapathy DK. Water vapor responsiveness of chitosan: An experimental and simulation analysis. J Chem Phys 2024; 161:144901. [PMID: 39377331 DOI: 10.1063/5.0226807] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2024] [Accepted: 09/23/2024] [Indexed: 10/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Stimuli-responsive polymers have gained significant research interest in recent years owing to their potential applications in diverse areas. Here, we present a study on the actuation characteristics of chitosan-based free-standing films that exhibit full reversibility and repeatability in response to water vapor exposure. The effect of pH of the water and the degree of cross-linking of the chitosan films on the actuation performance is studied. In the case of free-standing polymer film-based actuators, the primary driving force behind actuation is understood to be the differential strain induced by the gradient in volume changes across the thickness of the film. To understand it further, we conducted full atomistic molecular dynamics simulation studies to explore water absorption and adsorption into the chitosan matrix. Our simulations revealed an accumulation of water molecules in the surface layer that rapidly desorb when shielded from water vapor. Furthermore, estimates of the energy gain resulting from the adsorption of water on the surface suggest that it is adequate to drive the shape change of the actuator when subjected to asymmetric exposure to water vapor. This finding supports the fact that the adsorbed layer of water on the surface of the chitosan film plays a role in actuation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Aathira Murali
- Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad, Palakkad, Kerala 678557, India
| | - P B Sunil Kumar
- Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, India
- Centre for Soft and Biological Matter, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, India
| | - Dillip K Satapathy
- Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, India
- Centre for Soft and Biological Matter, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, India
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Tripathy M, Srivastava A. Non-affine deformation analysis and 3D packing defects: A new way to probe membrane heterogeneity in molecular simulations. Methods Enzymol 2024; 701:541-577. [PMID: 39025582 DOI: 10.1016/bs.mie.2024.03.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/20/2024]
Abstract
Here, we discuss a new framework developed over the last 5 years in our group to probe nanoscale membrane heterogeneity. The framework is based on the idea of characterizing lateral heterogeneity through non-affine deformation (NAD) measurements, transverse heterogeneity through three dimensional (3D) lipid packing defects, and using these approaches to formalize the seemingly trivial correlation between lateral organization and lipid packing in biological membranes. We find that measurements from NAD analysis, a prescription which is borrowed from Physics of glasses and granular material, can faithfully distinguish between liquid-ordered and disordered phases in membranes at molecular length scales and, can also be used to identify phase boundaries with high precision. Concomitantly, 3D-packing defects can not only distinguish between the two co-existing fluid phases based on their molecular scale packing (or membrane free volume), but also provide a route to connect the membrane domains to their functionality, such as exploring the molecular origins of inter-leaflet domain registration and peptide partitioning. The correlation between lateral membrane order and transverse packing presents novel molecular design-level features that can explain functions such as protein/peptide partitioning and small-molecule permeation dynamics in complex and heterogeneous membranes with high-fidelity. The framework allows us to explore the nature of lateral organization and molecular packing as a manifestation of intricate molecular interactions among a chemically rich variety of lipids and other molecules in a membrane with complex membrane composition and asymmetry across leaflets.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Madhusmita Tripathy
- Department of Chemistry, Technical University of Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany.
| | - Anand Srivastava
- Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Tripathy M, Thangamani S, Srivastava A. Three-Dimensional Packing Defects in Lipid Membrane as a Function of Membrane Order. J Chem Theory Comput 2020; 16:7800-7816. [PMID: 33226805 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.0c00609] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
Lipid membrane packing defects are considered to be an essential parameter that regulates specific membrane binding of several peripheral proteins. In the absence of direct experimental characterization, lipid packing defects and their role in the binding of peripheral proteins are generally investigated through computational studies, which have been immensely successful in unraveling the key steps of the membrane-binding process. However, packing defects are calculated using two-dimensional (2D) projections and the crucial information on their depths is generally overlooked. Here, we present a simple yet computationally efficient algorithm, which identifies these defects in three dimensions. We validate the algorithm on a number of model membrane systems that are previously studied using 2D defect calculations and find that the defect size and the defect depth may not always be directly correlated. We employ the algorithm to understand the nature of packing defects in flat bilayer membranes exhibiting liquid-ordered (Lo), liquid-disordered (Ld), and co-existing (Lo/Ld) phases. Our results indicate the presence of shallower, smaller, and spatially localized defects in the Lo phase membranes as compared to the defects in Ld and mixed Lo/Ld phase membranes. Such analyses can elucidate the molecular-scale mechanisms that drive the preferential localization of certain proteins to either of the liquid phases or their interface. We also analyze the membrane sensing and anchoring process of a peptide in terms of the three-dimensional defects, which provides additional insights into the process with respect to depth distributions across the bilayer leaflets.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Madhusmita Tripathy
- Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science-Bangalore, C.V. Raman Road, Bangalore, Karnataka 560012, India
| | - Subasini Thangamani
- Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science-Bangalore, C.V. Raman Road, Bangalore, Karnataka 560012, India
| | - Anand Srivastava
- Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science-Bangalore, C.V. Raman Road, Bangalore, Karnataka 560012, India
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Iyer SS, Srivastava A. Degeneracy in molecular scale organization of biological membranes. SOFT MATTER 2020; 16:6752-6764. [PMID: 32628232 DOI: 10.1039/d0sm00619j] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
The scale-rich spatiotemporal organization in biological membranes has its origin in the differential inter- and intra-molecular interactions among their constituents. In this work, we explore the molecular-origin behind that variety and possible degeneracy in lateral organization in membranes. For our study, we post-process microsecond long all-atom molecular dynamics trajectories for three systems that exhibit fluid phase coexistence: (i) PSM/POPC/Chol (0.47/0.32/0.21), (ii) PSM/DOPC/Chol (0.43/0.38/0.19) and (iii) DPPC/DOPC/Chol (0.37/0.36/0.27). To distinguish the liquid ordered and disordered regions at molecular scales, we calculate the degree of non-affineness of individual lipids in their neighbourhood and track their topological rearrangements. Disconnectivity graph analysis with respect to membrane organization shows that the DPPC/DOPC/Chol and PSM/DOPC/Chol systems exhibit funnel-like energy landscapes as opposed to a highly frustrated energy landscape for the more biomimetic PSM/POPC/Chol system. We use these measurements to develop a continuous lattice Hamiltonian and evolve that using Monte Carlo simulated annealing to explore the possibility of structural degeneracy in membrane organization. Our data show that model membranes with lipid constituents that are biomimetic (PSM/POPC/Chol) have the ability to access a large range of membrane sub-structure space (higher degeneracy) as compared to the other two systems, which form only one kind of substructure even with changing composition. Since the spatiotemporal organization in biological membranes dictates the "molecular encounters" and in turn larger scale biological processes such as molecular transport, trafficking and cellular signalling, we posit that this structural degeneracy could enable access to a larger repository to functionally important molecular organization in systems with physiologically relevant compositions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sahithya S Iyer
- Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.
| | | |
Collapse
|
5
|
Mirzaali MJ, Pahlavani H, Yarali E, Zadpoor AA. Non-affinity in multi-material mechanical metamaterials. Sci Rep 2020; 10:11488. [PMID: 32661428 PMCID: PMC7359350 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-67984-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2020] [Accepted: 06/08/2020] [Indexed: 02/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Non-affine deformations enable mechanical metamaterials to achieve their unusual properties while imposing implications for their structural integrity. The presence of multiple phases with different mechanical properties results in additional non-affinity of the deformations, a phenomenon that has never been studied before in the area of extremal mechanical metamaterials. Here, we studied the degree of non-affinity, [Formula: see text], resulting from the random substitution of a fraction of the struts,[Formula: see text], that make up a lattice structure and are printed using a soft material (elastic modulus = [Formula: see text]) by those printed using a hard material ([Formula: see text]). Depending on the unit cell angle (i.e., [Formula: see text] = 60°, 90°, or 120°), the lattice structures exhibited negative, near-zero, or positive values of the Poisson's ratio, respectively. We found that the auxetic structures exhibit the highest levels of non-affinity, followed by the structures with positive and near-zero values of the Poisson's ratio. We also observed an increase in [Formula: see text] with [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] until [Formula: see text] =104 and [Formula: see text]= 75%-90% after which [Formula: see text] saturated. The dependency of [Formula: see text] upon [Formula: see text] was therefore found to be highly asymmetric. The positive and negative values of the Poisson's ratio were strongly correlated with [Formula: see text]. Interestingly, achieving extremely high or extremely low values of the Poisson's ratio required highly affine deformations. In conclusion, our results clearly show the importance of considering non-affinity when trying to achieve a specific set of mechanical properties and underscore the structural integrity implications in multi-material mechanical metamaterials.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- M J Mirzaali
- Department of Biomechanical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical, Maritime, and Materials Engineering, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Mekelweg 2, 2628 CD, Delft, The Netherlands.
| | - H Pahlavani
- Department of Biomechanical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical, Maritime, and Materials Engineering, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Mekelweg 2, 2628 CD, Delft, The Netherlands
| | - E Yarali
- School of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
| | - A A Zadpoor
- Department of Biomechanical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical, Maritime, and Materials Engineering, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Mekelweg 2, 2628 CD, Delft, The Netherlands
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Wu B, Wang S, Wang J, Song X, Zhou Y, Gao C. Facile Fabrication of High-Performance Thin Film Nanocomposite Desalination Membranes Imbedded with Alkyl Group-Capped Silica Nanoparticles. Polymers (Basel) 2020; 12:polym12061415. [PMID: 32599914 PMCID: PMC7361704 DOI: 10.3390/polym12061415] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2020] [Revised: 06/03/2020] [Accepted: 06/19/2020] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The advantages of thin film nanocomposite reverse osmosis (TFN-RO) membranes have been demonstrated by numerous studies within the last decade. This study proposes a facile and novel method to tune the microscale and nanoscale structures, which has good potential to fabricate high-performance TFN-RO membranes. This method involves the addition of alkyl capped silica nanoparticles (alkyl-silica NPs) into the organic phase during interfacial polymerization (IP). We discovered for the first time that the high concentration alkyl-silica NPs in organic solvent isopar-G can limit the diffusion of MPD molecules at the interface, therefore shaping the intrinsic thickness and microstructures of the PA layer. Moreover, the alkyl group modification greatly reduces the NPs agglomeration and increases the compatibility between the NPs and the PA matrix. We further demonstrate that the doping of alkyl-silica NPs impacts the performance of the TFN-RO membrane by affecting intrinsic thickness, higher surface area, hydrophobic plugging effect, and higher surface charge by a series of characterization. At brackish water desalination conditions (2000 ppm NaCl, 1.55 MPa), the optimal brackish water flux was 55.3 L/m2∙h, and the rejection was maintained at 99.6%, or even exceeded this baseline. At seawater desalination conditions (32,000 ppm NaCl, 5.5 MPa), the optimized seawater flux reached 67.7 L/m2∙h, and the rejection was sustained at 99.4%. Moreover, the boron rejection was elevated by 11%, which benefits from a hydrophobic plugging effect of the alkyl groups.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Biqin Wu
- Center for Membrane Separation and Water Science & Technology, Ocean College, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, China; (B.W.); (S.W.); (Y.Z.); (C.G.)
| | - Shuhao Wang
- Center for Membrane Separation and Water Science & Technology, Ocean College, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, China; (B.W.); (S.W.); (Y.Z.); (C.G.)
| | - Jian Wang
- Institute of Tianjin Seawater Desalination and Multipurpose Utilization, Ministry of Natural Resources, Tianjin 300192, China;
| | - Xiaoxiao Song
- Center for Membrane Separation and Water Science & Technology, Ocean College, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, China; (B.W.); (S.W.); (Y.Z.); (C.G.)
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +86-182-6815-9040
| | - Yong Zhou
- Center for Membrane Separation and Water Science & Technology, Ocean College, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, China; (B.W.); (S.W.); (Y.Z.); (C.G.)
| | - Congjie Gao
- Center for Membrane Separation and Water Science & Technology, Ocean College, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, China; (B.W.); (S.W.); (Y.Z.); (C.G.)
| |
Collapse
|