High Virus Removal by Self-Organized Nanostructured 2D Liquid-Crystalline Smectic Membranes for Water Treatment

To obtain high quality of drinking water free from biocontaminants is especially important issue. A new strategy employing smectic liquid-crystalline ionic membranes exhibiting 2D structures of layered nanochannels for water treatment is proposed for efficient virus removal and sufficient water flux. The smectic A (SmA) liquid-crystalline membranes obtained by in situ polymerization of an ionic mesogenic monomer are examined for removal of three distinct viruses with small size: Qβ bacteriophage, MS2 bacteriophage, and Aichi virus. The semi-bilayer structure of the SmA significantly obstructs the virus penetration with an average log reduction value of 7.3 log₁₀ or the equivalent of reducing 18 million viruses down to 1. Furthermore, the layered nanochannels of the SmA liquid crystal allow efficient water permeation compared to other types of liquid-crystalline membrane consisting of nanopores.