Abstract
Membrane fouling and biofouling are major challenges in the application of membrane technology for wastewater treatment. The synthesis of antifouling and antibiofouling dual functionality membranes is a promising approach to tackling these problems. In this work, we fabricated a high-efficiency dual functionality polyethersulfone (PES) ultrafiltration membrane by blending an antibacterial reduced graphene oxide-ZnO nanocomposite into a PES matrix (rGO/ZnO–PES) followed by surface grafting of a low-fouling polyampholyte hydrogel (rGO/ZnO–z–PES). The antibacterial activity of the blended membrane was optimized by changing the nanocomposite fraction in the PES dope solution. Surface characterizations (SEM-EDS, XPS, ATR-FTIR, contact angle, and Zeta potential) confirmed the successful grafting of the zwitterionic hydrogel on the rGO/ZnO–PES membrane surface. Contact killing assays revealed that the polyampholyte hydrogel grafting did not affect the high antibacterial activity of the rGO/ZnO–PES membrane. Dynamic filtration experiments demonstrated the very high antifouling and antibiofouling of the rGO/ZnO–z–PES membrane, and significantly higher than those of the rGO/ZnO-PES and pristine PES membranes. The measured concentration of zinc ions in the permeate was low. Overall, our results demonstrate that the rGO/ZnO–z–PES membrane has excellent antifouling and antibiofouling performance and is stable and safe, and therefore very promising for wastewater treatment.
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