Award-Winning Research on Engineering Sustainable Protein Membranes from Corn 🌽
Our research group recently published a new open-access paper in SusMat, detailing our progress in replacing fossil-based plastics in industrial separation materials with sustainable alternatives.
🎬 Watch the video abstract for the project on YouTube.
Our solution utilizes zein, a biodegradable protein sourced from corn industry byproducts. By replacing traditional toxic chemicals with green solvents like acetic acid and ethyl lactate, we successfully engineered solvent-resistant nanofiltration membranes. In our study, we demonstrated that these membranes can effectively filter carcinogenic impurities out of pharmaceutical ingredients.
This work relied on critical interdisciplinary collaboration with the Habuchi Lab. By using single-molecule tracking with quantum dots, we were able to observe the real-time dynamics of the membrane forming at the microscopic level.
A huge congratulations to the paper’s first author, Claudia Oviedo, who won the KAUST BESE Interdisciplinary Collaboration Award for spearheading this project!
📖 Read the full open-access paper on SusMat
📰 Check out the feature story on KAUST Discovery
szekelygroup.com 