In Situ Chemical Modification with Zwitterionic Copolymers of Nanofiltration Membranes: Cure for the Trade-Off between Filtration and Antifouling Performance

Xinyun Zhang, Jiayu Tian, Ruiyang Xu, Xiaoxiang Cheng, Xuewu Zhu, Ching Yoong Loh, Kaifang Fu, Ruidong Zhang, Daoji Wu, Huixe Ren, Ming Xie

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Citations (SciVal)
19 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Breaking the trade-off between filtration performance and antifouling property is critical to enabling a thin-film nanocomposite (TFC) nanofiltration (NF) membrane for a wide range of feed streams. We proposed a novel design route for TFC NF membranes by grafting well-defined zwitterionic copolymers of [2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl]dimethyl-(3-sulfopropyl)ammonium hydroxide (SBMA) and 2-aminoethyl methacrylate hydrochloride (AEMA) on the polyamide surfaces via an in situ surface chemical modification process. The successful grafting of a zwitterionic copolymer imparted the modified NF membranes with better surface hydrophilicity, a larger actual surface area (i.e., nodular structures), and a thinner polyamide layer. As a result, the water permeability of the modified membrane (i.e., TFC-10) was triple that of the pristine TFC membrane while maintaining high Na2SO4 rejection. We further demonstrated that the TFC-10 membrane possessed exceptional antifouling properties in both static adsorption tests and three cycles of dynamic protein and humic acid fouling tests. To recap, this work provides valuable insights and strategies for the fabrication of TFC NF membranes with simultaneously enhanced filtration performance and antifouling property.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)28842-28853
Number of pages12
JournalACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
Volume14
Issue number25
Early online date16 Jun 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 29 Jun 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 22008162), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (no. 2021M702016), the Jinan City-school Integration Development Strategy Project (no. JNSX2021048), the Shandong Provincial Major Scientific and Technological Innovation Project (MSTIP) (no. 2020CXGC011203, 2019JZZY020211), and the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (no. ZR202102280483). We also thank the financial support from the Royal Society (IEC\NSFC\211021).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • antifouling properties
  • filtration performance
  • in situ surface modification
  • nanofiltration membrane
  • zwitterionic copolymer

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Materials Science

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