Biomimetic multilayer compositions

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11247181-B2
Application number	US-201716344505-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 24, 2017
Priority date	Oct 24, 2016
Publication date	Feb 15, 2022
Grant date	Feb 15, 2022

Abstract

The present invention provides, inter alia, compositions including at least one pliable layer comprising a plurality of silk fibroin nanofibrils, and at least one rigid layer comprising a plurality of mineral crystals, wherein each rigid layer is associated with at least one pliable layer, as well as methods for the production and use thereof.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A filtration membrane comprising at least two filtration membrane layer structures, each of the at least two filtration membrane layer structures comprising:
at least one pliable membrane layer comprising a plurality of silk fibroin nanofibrils; and
at least one rigid membrane layer comprising a plurality of mineral crystals, wherein each rigid layer is associated with at least one pliable layer.

2. The filtration membrane of claim 1 , wherein at least one pliable layer is porous.

3. The filtration membrane of claim 2 , wherein the pores of the at least one pliable layer have an average diameter between 1-20 nm.

4. The filtration membrane of claim 1 , wherein the at least one pliable layer comprises two or more of silk, silk fibroin, silk-elastin, amyloid, collagen, nanochitin, nanocellulose, and silaffin.

5. The filtration membrane of claim 1 , wherein the at least one rigid layer is porous.

6. The filtration membrane of claim 5 , wherein the pores of the at least one rigid layer have an average diameter between 5-100 nm.

7. The filtration membrane of claim 1 , wherein the silk fibroin nanofibrils have an average aspect ratio of between 1:10 and 1:1,000.

8. The filtration membrane of claim 1 , wherein the at least one pliable layer has a thickness between 10 nm and 1,000 μm.

9. The filtration membrane of claim 1 , wherein the at least one rigid layer has a thickness between 10 nm and 1,000 um.

10. The filtration membrane of claim 1 , wherein the mineral crystals are calcium-containing nanocrystals, titanium-containing nanocrystals, gold-containing nanocrystals, silver-containing nanocrystals, graphene-containing nanocrystals, graphene oxide-containing nanocrystals, or silica-containing nanoparticles.

11. The filtration membrane of claim 10 , wherein the calcium-containing nanocrystals are hydroxyapatite crystals or calcium carbonate crystals.

12. The filtration membrane of claim 1 , wherein at least one layer of the filtration membrane is formed via one or more of vacuum filtration, injection, spin coating, deposition, cylinder extrusion, and compression.

13. The filtration membrane of claim 1 , wherein the filtration membrane comprises at least three pliable layers.

14. The filtration membrane of claim 1 , wherein the filtration membrane comprises at least three rigid layers.

15. The filtration membrane of claim 1 , wherein the filtration membrane is substantially insoluble.

16. The filtration membrane of claim 1 , wherein the filtration membrane has a removal capacity for gold (Au 3+ ) of at least 130 mg/g of membrane.

17. The filtration membrane of claim 1 , wherein the filtration membrane has a removal capacity for copper (Cu 2+ ) of at least 60 mg/g of membrane.

18. The filtration membrane of claim 1 , wherein the filtration membrane has a removal capacity for nickel (Ni 2+ ) of at least 60 mg/g of membrane.

19. The filtration membrane of claim 1 , wherein the filtration membrane has a removal capacity for chromium (Cr 3+ ) of at least 120 mg/g of membrane.

20. A method comprising
(a) growing a plurality of mineral crystals on at least one pliable membrane layer comprising a plurality of silk fibroin nanofibrils such that the crystals form at least one rigid membrane layer associated with the at least one pliable membrane layer, thereby producing a first filtration membrane layer structure;
(b) repeating step (a), thereby producing a second filtration membrane layer structure; and
(c) forming a filtration membrane comprising the first and second filtration membrane layer structures.

Assignees

• Tufts College
• Massachusetts Inst Technology

Inventors

• Kaplan David L
• Buehler Markus J
• Ling Shengjie

Classifications

• B01D69/1218

  Layers having the same chemical composition, but different properties, e.g. pore size, molecular weight or porosity · CPC title

• B01D67/00791

  Different components in separate layers · CPC title

• Y10T428/249981

  Plural void-containing components · CPC title

• Y10T428/249964

  Fibers of defined composition · CPC title

• Y10T428/24996

  With internal element bridging layers, nonplanar interface between layers, or intermediate layer of commingled adjacent foam layers · CPC title