Small molecule assemblies, such as the cell membrane, are pervasive in nature because they offer tunable surface chemistries for specific environmental interactions and high surface areas to perform more chemistry on less material. These characteristics could also be useful for point-of-use water treatment by designing surfaces to capture contaminants. However, the dynamic nature of conventional assemblies – which enable biological processes – preclude their use from non-biological applications. Here, we present the design of ultra-robust nanoribbons from small molecule amphiphiles that overcome these dynamic limitations and their application to water treatment. We demonstrate that the molecular assemblies can remediate significant quantities of lead, survive in extreme environmental conditions, and are scalable to large quantities. The design and optimization of these assemblies offers broad insight to producing next-generation miniaturized technologies for water treatment.

Remediating contaminated water with high-surface-area molecular assemblies

ACS Spring 2022

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