Title of funded project：Novel nanoporous smart polymeric materials and their applications in bioseparation and manipulation.

Funding agency：National Natural Science Foundation of China

Grant number：21104061

Total funding amount：CNY 260,000

  Bio-separation is the essential precondition of the applications of modern biotechnology. In order to solve some outstanding problems in the bio-separation, it is emergent to develop some smart nanoporous membrane materials which could recognize specific biomolecules. These materials will find wide applications due to their obvious advantages such as clean, high efficiency and specificity, excellent cost performance. Smart polymeric materials, especially the biomolecules responsive materials have become one of popular directions in the material sciences. Various smart interfacial materials which could response to the external stimulus, such as heat, pH, light, electric and magnetic fields have been developed by many domestic and international research groups, also including our own contributions. In this project, we will combine the bioresponisve smart materials with the nanoporous alumina oxide substrates to develop a series of smart nano-channels membrane materials, in which the pore sizes of nanochannels could be adjusted conveniently. In the further step, three classes of DNAs will be chosen as the model targets of bio-separations, the separation effects of the channel materials will be evaluated systematically. The inner channel behaviours of polymeric chains changing from contractive state to relaxed state in response to the biomolecules will also be investigated synchronously. Finally the possible mechanism of bioseparations will be explored in detail. The smart membrane materials developed in this project will have wide application perspectives in the bio-separation and purification, controllable drug release, bio-chips, microfluid devices and other bio-related areas.