Abstract
Biofouling is a major problem of membrane processes in water and wastewater treatment. One of the anti-biofouling strategies is to construct an antimicrobial membrane surface. In this study, polypropylene(PP) microfiltration membranes with antimicrobial property were fabricated by grafting glycidyl methacrylate(GMA), followed by amination or sulfonation with ethylenediamine or sodium sulfite solution. GMA was facilely grafted onto PP membrane by UV-induced graft polymerization, and the graft chains were easily aminated or sulfonated by a simple chemical reaction. The modified PP membranes were characterized by FT-IR, SEM, water permeability and antimicrobial tests. The PP membranes modified by grafting GMA improved the water permeability due to the hydrophilization of the surface, but the antimicrobial activity was too low. In contrast, aminated or sulfonated PP membranes exhibited high antimicrobial activity against both E. coli and S. aureus without a significant reduction in the water permeability.
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