TY - JOUR
T1 - In Situ Chemical Modification with Zwitterionic Copolymers of Nanofiltration Membranes
T2 - Cure for the Trade-Off between Filtration and Antifouling Performance
AU - Zhang, Xinyun
AU - Tian, Jiayu
AU - Xu, Ruiyang
AU - Cheng, Xiaoxiang
AU - Zhu, Xuewu
AU - Loh, Ching Yoong
AU - Fu, Kaifang
AU - Zhang, Ruidong
AU - Wu, Daoji
AU - Ren, Huixe
AU - Xie, Ming
N1 - 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.
PY - 2022/6/29
Y1 - 2022/6/29
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - antifouling properties
KW - filtration performance
KW - in situ surface modification
KW - nanofiltration membrane
KW - zwitterionic copolymer
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85133214948&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/acsami.2c05311
DO - 10.1021/acsami.2c05311
M3 - Article
VL - 14
SP - 28842
EP - 28853
JO - ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
JF - ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
SN - 1944-8244
IS - 25
ER -