Efficient wastewater treatment by membranes through constructing tunable antifouling membrane surfaces

Environ Sci Technol. 2011 Aug 1;45(15):6545-52. doi: 10.1021/es200994n. Epub 2011 Jul 14.

Abstract

In the present study, a facile in situ approach for constructing tunable amphiphilic or hydrophilic antifouling membrane surfaces was demonstrated by exquisitely manipulating the microphase separation and surface segregation behavior of the tailor-made ternary amphiphilic block copolymers during the commonly utilized wet phase inversion membrane-formation process. Under dead-end filtration for oily wastewater treatment, the membrane with amphiphilic surface exhibited over 99.5% retention ratio of chemical oxygen demand (COD) without appreciable membrane fouling: the water permeation flux was slightly decreased during operation (total flux decline was 6.8%) and almost completely recovered to the initial value (flux recovery ratio was more than 99.0%) after simple hydraulic washing. While for the proteins-containing wastewater treatment, the membrane with hydrophilic surface exhibited about 52.6% COD retention ratio and superior antifouling performance: only 17.0% total flux decline and also more than 99.0% flux recovery ratio. Hopefully, the present approach can be developed as a competitive platform technology for the preparation of robust and versatile antifouling membrane, leading to the high process efficiency of wastewater treatments.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Biofouling / prevention & control*
  • Cattle
  • Filtration
  • Membranes, Artificial*
  • Molecular Conformation
  • Permeability
  • Photoelectron Spectroscopy
  • Polymers / chemical synthesis
  • Polymers / chemistry
  • Serum Albumin, Bovine / chemistry
  • Solutions
  • Solvents / chemistry
  • Surface Properties
  • Surface-Active Agents / chemistry
  • Time Factors
  • Volatilization
  • Waste Disposal, Fluid*
  • Water / chemistry
  • Water Purification / methods*

Substances

  • Membranes, Artificial
  • Polymers
  • Solutions
  • Solvents
  • Surface-Active Agents
  • Water
  • Serum Albumin, Bovine