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Nakahata M, Sumiya A, Ikemoto Y, Nakamura T, Dudin A, Schwieger J, Yamamoto A, Sakai S, Kaufmann S, Tanaka M. Hyperconfined bio-inspired Polymers in Integrative Flow-Through Systems for Highly Selective Removal of Heavy Metal Ions. Nat Commun 2024; 15:5824. [PMID: 38992009 PMCID: PMC11239941 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-49869-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2023] [Accepted: 06/21/2024] [Indexed: 07/13/2024] Open
Abstract
Access to clean water, hygiene, and sanitation is becoming an increasingly pressing global demand, particularly owing to rapid population growth and urbanization. Phytoremediation utilizes a highly conserved phytochelatin in plants, which captures hazardous heavy metal ions from aquatic environments and sequesters them in vacuoles. Herein, we report the design of phytochelatin-inspired copolymers containing carboxylate and thiolate moieties. Titration calorimetry results indicate that the coexistence of both moieties is essential for the excellent Cd2+ ion-capturing capacity of the copolymers. The obtained dissociation constant, KD ~ 1 nM for Cd2+ ion, is four-to-five orders of magnitude higher than that for peptides mimicking the sequence of endogenous phytochelatin. Furthermore, infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy results unravel the mechanism underlying complex formation at the molecular level. The grafting of 0.1 g bio-inspired copolymers onto silica microparticles and cellulose membranes helps concentrate the copolymer-coated microparticles in ≈3 mL volume to remove Cd2+ ions from 0.3 L of water within 1 h to the drinking water level (<0.03 µM). The obtained results suggest that hyperconfinement of bio-inspired polymers in flow-through systems can be applied for the highly selective removal of harmful contaminants from the environmental water.
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Affiliation(s)
- Masaki Nakahata
- Department of Macromolecular Science, Graduate School of Science, Osaka University, Osaka, 560-0043, Japan.
- Department of Materials Engineering Science, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, Osaka, 560-8531, Japan.
| | - Ai Sumiya
- Department of Materials Engineering Science, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, Osaka, 560-8531, Japan
| | - Yuka Ikemoto
- Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (JASRI) SPring-8, Hyogo, 679-5198, Japan
| | - Takashi Nakamura
- Institute of Pure and Applied Sciences and Tsukuba Research Center for Energy Materials Science (TREMS), University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8571, Japan
| | - Anastasia Dudin
- Physical Chemistry of Biosystems, Institute of Physical Chemistry, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, 69120, Germany
| | - Julius Schwieger
- Physical Chemistry of Biosystems, Institute of Physical Chemistry, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, 69120, Germany
| | - Akihisa Yamamoto
- Center for Integrative Medicine and Physics, Institute for Advanced Study, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 606-8501, Japan
- Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences Program (iTHEMS), RIKEN, Saitama, 351-0198, Japan
| | - Shinji Sakai
- Department of Materials Engineering Science, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, Osaka, 560-8531, Japan
| | - Stefan Kaufmann
- Physical Chemistry of Biosystems, Institute of Physical Chemistry, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, 69120, Germany
| | - Motomu Tanaka
- Physical Chemistry of Biosystems, Institute of Physical Chemistry, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, 69120, Germany.
- Center for Integrative Medicine and Physics, Institute for Advanced Study, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 606-8501, Japan.
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Wesenberg L, Müller M. Role of Interaction Range and Buoyancy on the Adhesion of Vesicles. LANGMUIR : THE ACS JOURNAL OF SURFACES AND COLLOIDS 2024. [PMID: 38319679 PMCID: PMC10883059 DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.3c02715] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/07/2024]
Abstract
Vesicles on substrates play a fundamental role in many biological processes, ranging from neurotransmitter release at the synapse on small scales to the nutrient intake of trees by large vesicles. For these processes, the adsorption or desorption of vesicles to biological substrates is crucial. Consequently, it is important to understand the factors determining whether and for how long a vesicle adsorbs to a substrate and what shape it will adopt. Here, we systematically study the adsorption of a vesicle to planar substrates with short- and long-range interactions, with and without buoyancy. We assume an axially symmetric system throughout our simulations. Previous studies often considered a contact potential of zero range and neutral buoyancy. The interaction range alters the location and order of the adsorption transition and is particularly important for small vesicles, e.g., in the synapse. Whereas even small density differences between the inside and the outside of the vesicle give rise to strong buoyancy effects for large vesicles, e.g., giant unilamellar vesicles, as buoyancy effects scale with the fourth power of the vesicle size. We find that (i) an attractive membrane-substrate potential with nonzero spatial extension leads to a pinned state, where the vesicle benefits from the attractive membrane-substrate interaction without significant deformation. The adsorption transition is of first order and occurs when the substrate switches from repulsive to attractive. (ii) Buoyancy shifts the transversality condition, which relates the maximal curvature in the contact zone to the adhesion strength and bending rigidity, up/downward, depending on the direction of the buoyancy force. The magnitude of the shift is influenced by the range of the potential. For upward buoyancy, adsorbed vesicles are at most metastable. We determine the stability limit and the desorption mechanisms and compile the thermodynamic data into an adsorption diagram. Our findings reveal that buoyancy, as well as spatially extended interactions, are essential when quantitatively comparing experiments to theory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucia Wesenberg
- Institute for Theoretical Physics, Georg-August University, Friedrich-Hund-Platz 1, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
| | - Marcus Müller
- Institute for Theoretical Physics, Georg-August University, Friedrich-Hund-Platz 1, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
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