Ajustable membrane pore size with Functionalizable Metallic nanoRING features – AFM_Ring

Development of fouling-resistant smart membranes selective for challenging protein separations is needed since separation of similar-sized proteins with current commercial membranes is not possible. The AFM_Ring project proposes a membrane skin layer design breakthrough, which consists of a well-ordered stimuli-responsive pores, able to separate similar-sized proteins, surrounded by post-functionalizable gold nanorings. Here, the nanorings are templated from the self-assembly of linear ABC triblock terpolymers into an out-of-plane core-shell cylindrical structure devised so that the ring-shaped domains have a preferential affinity with metallic precursors. After the deposition-reduction process, the gold nanorings, surrounding each uniform pore of the membrane, are easily functionalizable with thiol-terminated hydrophilic homopolymers, which prevents the pore blocking.