Scrutinizing the consequence of surface modification on membrane stability and resistivity towards fouling

Abstract

Membrane fouling due to the interactions of solutes and the membrane surface are the object of intensive studies. Appointing to this crucial issues, methods for the improvement of membrane antifouling characteristics have been developed. In this work, the polyethersulfone ultrafiltration (PES-UF) membrane surface has been modified by the pre-adsorption of myoglobin. Ultrafiltration (UF) experiments of lyszoyme were performed using native PES-UF and myoglobin coated PES-UF membrane. Membrane resistance towards fouling was measured by calculating the flux recovery ratio (FRR) and each membrane was analyzed for the degree of hydrophilicity using contact angle measurements. Results were further verified by the UF of lysozyme and the degree of transmission for both coated and uncoated membranes were compared. Findings obtained showed that the myoglobin modified membranes gave higher flux recovery ratio and a superior hydrophilicity attributes as contrast to the PES-UF membrane of unmodified surface. An increased in the transmission of lysozyme with an optimum percentage of 96.31% was also attained for the myoglobin modified PES-UF membrane, indicates that, the surface modified membranes potentially show a better ability towards protein fractionation. Such enhancement might be contributes by the introduction of myoglobin coating. Thus, it can be concluded that, this proprietary surface coating has successfully enhanced the hydrophilic features of the modified PES-UF membrane, making it more invincible to fouling than the native PES-UF membrane. The excellent flux recovery property of these myoglobin coated PES-UF membranes signifies that this surface modified membrane could be regenerated and used repeatedly for several runs. Hence, the membrane surface treatment method proposed in this research may have facile implications for the manufacturing of high flux and fouling endurance UF membrane.