(317a) Stimuli-Responsive Smart Membranes for Controlled Release and Separations

As emerging artificial biomimetic membranes, smart membranes that are able to respond to environmental stimuli are attracting ever-increasing interest from various fields.  Their surface characteristics and/or permeation properties including hydraulic permeability (pressure-driven convective flow of solvents) and diffusional permeability (concentration-driven molecular diffusion of solutes) can be dramatically controlled or adjusted self-regulatively in response to small chemical and/or physical stimuli in their environments, such as temperature, pH, glucose concentration, and chemical or biological species.  Such environmental stimuli-responsive smart membranes could find myriad applications in numerous fields ranging from controlled drug delivery, to separation, water treatment, chemical sensors, chemical valves, and tissue engineering, etc.¹  In this presentation, the trans-membrane mass-transfer and membrane separation is introduced as the beginning to initiate the requirement of smart membranes, and bio-inspired design of environmental stimuli-responsive smart membranes are introduced and discussed.  Then, smart membrane types and their applications as smart tools for controllable mass-transfer in controlled release and separations are introduced.  The research topics in the near future are also discussed.

Reference

1. L.Y. Chu. Smart Membrane Materials and Systems - From Flat Membranes to Microcapsule Membranes. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg (2011).