Polymer membranes, including ultrafiltration (UF) membrane, nanofiltration (NF) membrane and reverse osmosis (RO) membrane, have been widely used in wastewater treatment, biotechnology, and desalination. However, fouling has been a major problem for these membranes' application in reality, due to membrane hydrophobicity. A combination of RAFT polymerization and �grafting to� approach was used to incorporate hydrophilic polymer brushes on polymer membranes, including polysulfone UF membranes with variable pore size and polyamide based reverse osmosis membranes, for anti-fouling enhancement. In this study, we developed a dynamic durability test with the use of quartz crystal microbalance (QCM).  Likewise, QCM was used to assess membrane fouling behavior on model surfaces which mimicked the modified membranes.  Structure-property relationships were established regarding the chemistry and grafting density of the surface modifying polymers and the macroscale membrane transport behavior.

Transport and fouling behavior of nanostructured membranes modified with RAFT-synthesized polymer brushes

248th National Meeting (2014)

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