Fouling remains one of the biggest challenge in the field of water filtration. Electrically conductive surfaces were demonstrated to have antifouling capabilities under extreme loadings of organic foulants. Considering the superior electro conductivity of two dimensional nanomaterials (i.e.; graphene oxide (GO), molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) etc.), these materials can also be used as conductive surfaces and to prevent the attachment of foulants on the surfaces with a proper polymer support. Here, we investigated whether changing the surface charge of these materials by applying external voltage can delay the attachment of the foulants on material surfaces. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) and sodium alginate were used as model foulants in this study. Electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (EQCM-D) was used to observe the deposition kinetics of the foulants. Preliminary results show that it is possible to delay the attachment of the foulants on MoS2 surfaces upon the application of -0.5 VAg/AgCl and the foulants starts to deposit as soon as the voltage is withdrawn. From EQCM-D data analysis it has been found that, BSA deposited on MoS2 with a maximum frequency shift 8.63 Hz (with voltage) and 26.6 Hz (without voltage) at an initial deposition rate of 2.07 Hz min-1 (with voltage) and 9.6 Hz min-1 (without voltage). On the other hand, BSA deposited on GO with a maximum frequency shift 33.28 Hz (with voltage) and 32.8 Hz (without voltage) at an initial deposition rate of 15 Hz min-1 (with voltage) and 13 Hz min-1 (without voltage). These results indicate that MoS2 showed slightly higher antifouling properties over GO without any external voltage but with the application voltage MoS2 shows excellent antifouling properties than GO. Detailed results with mechanisms will be presented.

Application of external voltage for the prevention of organic foulants deposited on graphene oxide and molybdenum disulfide

254th National Meeting (2017)

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