Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research
Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research
5 years ago

Facile Grafting of Zwitterions onto the Membrane Surface To Enhance Antifouling Properties for Wastewater Reuse

Facile Grafting of Zwitterions onto the Membrane Surface To Enhance Antifouling Properties for Wastewater Reuse
Haotian Sun, Sankara N. Ramanan, Chong Cheng, Surendar R. Venna, Eugene Park, Nima Shahkaramipour, David Fister, Haiqing Lin
Polymeric membranes for wastewater reuse are often fouled by suspended solids and dissolved organic matters, resulting in a dramatic decrease in water flux. Fouling can be mitigated by enhancing hydrophilicity of the membrane surface to avoid favorable interactions between the membranes and foulants. However, the modification of the membrane surface is often complicated and difficult to integrate into industrial membrane production processes. Herein we demonstrate a facile one-step coating of superhydrophilic zwitterions on the surface of ultrafiltration (UF) membranes by codepositing dopamine and sulfobetaine methacrylate (SBMA). In the presence of oxygen, dopamine forms polydopamine (PDA) adhering onto the membrane surface and anchors SBMA via Michael addition to form a robust thin superhydrophilic layer, as confirmed by contact angle measurement and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The modified UF membranes demonstrate up to 80% higher water flux than the uncoated ones, when tested with water containing bovine serum albumin (BSA) as a model foulant in a crossflow system. This facile approach of membrane modification is also adapted for postmodification of a commercial nanofiltration (NF) membrane module, which demonstrates superior antifouling properties when tested with real wastewater at a wastewater treatment plant.

Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.iecr.7b02378

DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.7b02378

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.