Imparting biofouling resistance to reverse osmosis (RO) membranes is essential for improving RO desalination economics. Accordingly, a novel atmospheric pressure plasma-induced graft polymerization method was utilized to generate a high surface density of active surface sites on a polyamide (PA) membrane. Subsequently, surface graft polymerization was employed to form a hydrophilic brush layer of polymeric chains that are terminally and covalently attached to the polyamide surface of a thin-film composite (TFC) polyamide membrane. The physicochemical characteristics (e.g., surface roughness, surface charge, wettability) of the resulting nano-structured (SNS)-TFC-PA surface were tailored through selected vinyl monomer chemistry and reaction conditions in order to achieve a surface tunable for reducing membrane biofouling, while achieving high membrane performance with respect to permeate flux and salt rejection. The present evaluation of the SNS-PA-TFC membranes suggests that biofouling and cleaning effectiveness of RO membranes can be enhanced via nanostructuring the membrane surface with hydrophilic brush layers. Kari J. Varin (Moses), Nancy Lin, and Yoram Cohen. 'Biofouling and Cleaning Effectiveness of Surface Nanostructured Reverse Osmosis Membranes.' Journal of Membrane Science. 446 (2013) 472-481.

Biofouling resistant surface nanostructured reverse osmosis membranes

248th National Meeting (2014)

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