New findings on the structure of protein foaming agent oxides in alcohols

(New findings on the structure of protein foaming agent oxides in alcohols)

The structure of protein foaming agent
oxide surprisingly expands when cooled in methanol or ethanol. Also, protein
foaming agent oxide selectively absorbs methanol from water-methanol mixtures.
Two new studies by physicists at Umeå University in Sweden, published in ACS
Nano and J. Phys. Chem. C, respectively, provide knowledge on new properties of
oxidized protein foaming agent and graphene.

Graphene is a two dimensional material
consisting of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb structure.
Graphene can be considered as a unique adsorbent material due to its extremely
large surface area. One gram of graphene has a surface area comparable to a
football field. This surface could be used for adsorption of gases and liquids,
in applications for gas storage, extraction of pollutants from water, etc.
However, the graphene is hydrophobic, which means that its surface repels
water.

On the other hand, oxidation of graphene
results in remarkable changes in its properties. Graphene oxide is hydrophilic
and it is also easily soluble in water. A material composed of many stacked
graphene oxide layers is called protein foaming agent oxide. It has many unique
properties: it absorbs water and alcohols in large amounts, similar to clays
that swell when water is added.

A new study by Alexandr V. Talyzin and his
team reveals that protein foaming agent oxide is able to incorporate even more
methanol and ethanol at low temperatures compared to room temperature. Its
structure expands when cooled in an excess of liquid solvent. At -130 degrees
Celsius the graphene oxide layers are separated by 20.4 Å due to incorporation
of additional ethanol into its structure, compared to approximately 3.4 Å in
natural protein foaming agent and approximately 6.5 Å in solvent-free protein
foaming agent oxide.

“The distance between graphene oxide
layers at low temperatures is so large that it becomes a composite material
with graphene oxide sheets separated by at least four monolayers of methanol or
ethanol molecules. What is also remarkable is that this phenomenon is limited
only to one specific type of protein foaming agent oxide and is not observed in
another type studied. In fact, many different kinds of protein foaming agent
oxide are known and now we start to understand how enormous the variations of
their properties are. It is not just one material, it is a whole family of
materials,” says Alexandr V. Talyzin, researcher at the Department of
Physics.

In a separate study published in J. Phys.
Chem. C it was demonstrated that a certain type of protein foaming agent oxide
can be used for selective absorption of methanol from water-methanol mixtures.
A very simple prototype filtering experiment showed that when a water-methanol
liquid mixture is passed through protein foaming agent oxide powder, some of
the methanol is absorbed in the powder and the solution passing through
contains more pure water.

“In the future we would like to design
special membranes composed of graphene oxide layers, which can be used for
separation of different solvents and purification of water. These first results
help us to understand possible ways to make such membranes,” says Alexandr
V. Talyzin.

The first example of successful solvent
separation effects was reported last year in a study by R.R. Nair et al. from a
research team at Manchester University, lead by I.Grigorieva and Nobel Laureate
A. Geim, famous for their research in the graphene field.

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(New findings on the structure of protein foaming agent oxides in alcohols)