title: Zwitterions coated hollow fiber membranes with enhanced antifouling properties for osmotic power generation from municipal wastewater.
abstract: Fouling on pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO) membranes leads to severe declines in water flux and power density because their porous substrates are facing the wastewater feed. Thus, inorganics, organics and microorganisms in the wastewater are prone to depositing on the substrate surface and even in its pores. In order to reduce the fouling propensity, coating the substrate surface of PRO membranes with zwitterionic materials proves to be an effective way. In this work, 2-methacryloyloxyethylphosphorylcholine (MPC), is modified and grafted onto the polydopamine (PDA) coated poly (ether sulfone) (PES) hollow fiber substrate. Both the synthesis and surface coating of MPC are easy and facile to be scaled up. Compared with the pristine PES and PES-PDA substrates, the MPC modified substrate (PES-PDA-MPC) exhibits high resistance to protein adsorption as well as bacteria adhesion. By using a state-of-the-art thin-film composite poly (ether sulfone) (TFC-PES) hollow fiber membrane as the control for power generation, the power density of the TFC-PES-PDA-MPC membrane can achieve as high as 7.7 W/m2while the unmodified one has only 6.0 W/m2after 3 h's PRO tests. In conclusion, the osmotic power generation of PRO membranes can be significantly sustained by modifying the membrane surface with zwitterions.
authors: Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117585, Singapore.
authors: Dieling
authors: D
authors: Zhao
authors: Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117585, Singapore.
authors: Guanglei
authors: G
authors: Qiu
authors: Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117585, Singapore.
authors: Xue
authors: X
authors: Li
authors: Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117585, Singapore.
authors: Chunfeng
authors: C
authors: Wan
authors: Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117585, Singapore.
authors: Kangjia
authors: K
authors: Lu
authors: Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117585, Singapore. Electronic address: chencts@nus.edu.sg.
authors: Tai-Shung
authors: TS
authors: Chung
mesh_terms: D001422:Bacterial Adhesion; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D009995:Osmosis; D009997:Osmotic Pressure; D062065:Wastewater / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D062065:Wastewater
keywords: Anti-fouling; Osmotic power; Poly(ether sulfone); Pressure-retarded osmosis; Thin-film composite membranes; Zwitterion