Zwitterion Co-Polymer PEI-SBMA Nanofiltration Membrane Modified by Fast Second Interfacial Polymerization.

Yu-Hsuan Chiao,S Ranil Wickramasinghe,Yung Chang,Shu-Ting Chen,Juin-Yih Lai,Micah Belle Marie Yap Ang,Xianghong Qian,Shu-Hsien Huang,Jorge Almodovar,Wei-Song Hung,Tanmoy Patra

doi:10.3390/polym12020269

Abstract

Nanofiltration membranes have evolved as a promising solution to tackle the clean water scarcity and wastewater treatment processes with their low energy requirement and environment friendly operating conditions. Thin film composite nanofiltration membranes with high permeability, and excellent antifouling and antibacterial properties are important component for wastewater treatment and clean drinking water production units. In the scope of this study, thin film composite nanofiltration membranes were fabricated using polyacrylonitrile (PAN) support and fast second interfacial polymerization modification methods by grafting polyethylene amine and zwitterionic sulfobutane methacrylate moieties. Chemical and physical alteration in structure of the membranes were characterized using methods like ATR-FTIR spectroscopy, XPS analysis, FESEM and AFM imaging. The effects of second interfacial polymerization to incorporate polyamide layer and ‘ion pair’ characteristics, in terms of water contact angle and surface charge analysis was investigated in correlation with nanofiltration performance. Furthermore, the membrane characteristics in terms of antifouling properties were evaluated using model protein foulants like bovine serum albumin and lysozyme. Antibacterial properties of the modified membranes were investigated using E. coli as model biofoulant. Overall, the effect of second interfacial polymerization without affecting the selectivity layer of nanofiltration membrane for their potential large-scale application was investigated in detail.

Highlights

Clean water production as per the ever-growing demand has become a major challenge in recent years with rapid population growth and extended droughts [1]
Apart from interfacial polymerization, several modifications have been used to create a selective layer on the support membrane such as dip-coating [9], layer-by-layer [10], interpenetrating polymer networks (IPN) [11], grafting [12], plasma [13], biocoating [14], and pressure assistant assembly [15]
The reported zwitterionic thin-film composite (TFC) nanofiltration membrane was fabricated from the support membrane using a typical interfacial polymerization modification followed by second interfacial polymerization

Summary

Introduction

Clean water production as per the ever-growing demand has become a major challenge in recent years with rapid population growth and extended droughts [1]. Polymers 2020, 12, 269 as well as wastewater treatment to tackle the water crisis. NF process has diverse application in liquid phase treatment such as desalination, food, pharmaceutical, solvent separation, biomass recovery, and oil/water separation [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Organic monomer trimesoyl chloride (TMC) via interfacial polymerization [7,8]. Apart from interfacial polymerization, several modifications have been used to create a selective layer on the support membrane such as dip-coating [9], layer-by-layer [10], interpenetrating polymer networks (IPN) [11], grafting [12], plasma [13], biocoating [14], and pressure assistant assembly [15]. Phase inversion methods have been employed for the fabrication of mixed matrix NF membrane [16]

Methods

Results

Conclusion