Aquaporins (AQPs) are well-known permeaselective transmembrane proteins which can be incorporated into biomimetic membranes as water channels for sea water desalination and water treatment. Owing to the incorporation of excellent water channels, AQPs containing biomimetic membranes have attracted more and more interests. The latest development in this fascinating area of membrane research and development are reviewed in this paper. The approaches for designing and fabricating AQPs containing biomimetic membranes are described and analyzed, moreover, the improvements of membrane performances are also reviewed. The challenges and limitations of AQP containing biomimetic membranes such as difficult to scale up and low AQP loaded are addressed based on the analysis of membranes performance. Finally, a new idea for finding other novel channels is suggested and the future prospects of AQP containing biomimetic membranes in desalination and water treatments are outlined.

Contents
1 Introduction
2 Methods of AQP embedded biomimetic membranes
2.1 AQP laden supported bilayer biomimetic membranes
2.2 AQP-containing vesicles encapsulated biomimetic membranes
3 Application and performance of AQP embedded membranes in water treatment field
3.1 Performance of AQP embedded biomimetic nanofiltration membranes
3.2 Performance of AQP embedded biomimetic reverse osmosis membranes
3.3 Performance of AQP embedded biomimetic forward osmosis membranes
4 Conclusion and outlook