TY - JOUR

T1 - Sustainable soy protein microsponges for efficient removal of lead (II) from aqueous environments

AU - Anselmo, Sara

AU - Avola, Tiziana

AU - Kalouta, Kleopatra

AU - Cataldo, Salvatore

AU - Sancataldo, Giuseppe

AU - Muratore, Nicola

AU - Foderà, Vito

AU - Vetri, Valeria

AU - Pettignano, Alberto

N1 - Funding Information: The authors thank the University of Palermo for financial support ( FFR – PROMETA , FFR2021 and FFR2023 ). The VILLUM FONDEN (Villum Young Investigator Grant, project number: 19175 ) and the Novo Nordisk Foundation ( NNF20OC00652 ) are also acknowledged for funding the project. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 Elsevier B.V.

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - Protein-based materials recently emerged as good candidates for water cleaning applications, due to the large availability of the constituent material, their biocompatibility and the ease of preparation. In this work, new adsorbent biomaterials were created from Soy Protein Isolate (SPI) in aqueous solution using a simple environmentally friendly procedure. Protein microsponge-like structures were produced and characterized by means of spectroscopy and fluorescence microscopy methods. The efficiency of these structures in removing Pb2+ ions from aqueous solutions was evaluated by investigating the adsorption mechanisms. The molecular structure and, consequently, the physico-chemical properties of these aggregates can be readily tuned by selecting the pH of the solution during production. In particular, the presence of β-structures typical of amyloids as well as an environment characterized by a lower dielectric constant seem to enhance metal binding affinity revealing that hydrophobicity and water accessibility of the material are key features affecting the adsorption efficiency. Presented results provide new knowledge on how raw plant proteins can be valorised for the production of new biomaterials. This may offer extraordinary opportunities towards the design and production of new tailorable biosorbents which can also be exploited for several cycles of purification with minimal reduction in performance. Synopsis: Innovative, sustainable plant-protein biomaterials with tunable properties are presented as green solution for water purification from lead(II) and the structure-function relationship is discussed.

AB - Protein-based materials recently emerged as good candidates for water cleaning applications, due to the large availability of the constituent material, their biocompatibility and the ease of preparation. In this work, new adsorbent biomaterials were created from Soy Protein Isolate (SPI) in aqueous solution using a simple environmentally friendly procedure. Protein microsponge-like structures were produced and characterized by means of spectroscopy and fluorescence microscopy methods. The efficiency of these structures in removing Pb2+ ions from aqueous solutions was evaluated by investigating the adsorption mechanisms. The molecular structure and, consequently, the physico-chemical properties of these aggregates can be readily tuned by selecting the pH of the solution during production. In particular, the presence of β-structures typical of amyloids as well as an environment characterized by a lower dielectric constant seem to enhance metal binding affinity revealing that hydrophobicity and water accessibility of the material are key features affecting the adsorption efficiency. Presented results provide new knowledge on how raw plant proteins can be valorised for the production of new biomaterials. This may offer extraordinary opportunities towards the design and production of new tailorable biosorbents which can also be exploited for several cycles of purification with minimal reduction in performance. Synopsis: Innovative, sustainable plant-protein biomaterials with tunable properties are presented as green solution for water purification from lead(II) and the structure-function relationship is discussed.

KW - Adsorption

KW - Amyloid superstructures

KW - Green chemistry

KW - Lead

KW - Soy

KW - Water contamination

U2 - 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2023.124276

DO - 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2023.124276

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 37011754

AN - SCOPUS:85152149761

VL - 239

JO - International Journal of Biological Macromolecules

JF - International Journal of Biological Macromolecules

SN - 0141-8130

M1 - 124276

ER -