Membrane hydrophilicity switching via molecular design and re-construction of the functional additive for enhanced fouling resistance

• Published in: Journal of membrane science 2019-10, Vol.588, p.117222, Article 117222
• Main Authors: Jiang, Yangbing, Zhang, Yuyao, Chen, Baoliang, Zhu, Xiaoying
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: ATRP; Fouling resistance; Membrane hydrophilic modification; Molecular re-construction
• ISSN: 0376-7388; 1873-3123
• DOI: 10.1016/j.memsci.2019.117222

Membrane hydrophilic modification is a common way to improve membrane antifouling performance. However, conventional modifications based on the same type of hydrophilic group/unit can boost membrane hydrophilicity only by increasing quantity of the introduced hydrophilic unites, while influences of the additive molecular architecture to surface modification were ignored. Thus, two ethyl cellulose (EC) based additives constructed with the same number of the hydrophilic methyl diethylene glycol methacrylate (MDEGMA) monomer but in different molecular architectures were purposely prepared. After blending with cellulose acetate (CA) in the same ratio to form membranes through non-solvent induced phase inversion (NIPS), the additive with less but longer hydrophilic chains (AL) endowed the membrane (ML) with higher hydrophilicity as well as better resistance to the typical organic and biological fouling than the membrane (MS) modified by the additive with more but shorter hydrophilic grafts (AS). Obviously, AL might provide higher hydrophilic modification efficiency than AS during the membrane modification. The additive molecular architecture re-construction is a more sustainable approach than increasing the hydrophilic additive quantity to improve membrane hydrophilicity. This study may guide the development of highly efficient hydrophilic additive for sustainable membrane modification, which indicated a route to widen the application of membrane and lower the cost. [Display omitted] •Additives with the same number of hydrophilic monomers but in different designer molecular architectures were synthesized.•The long and sparse grafts was more efficient than the short and dense chains in membrane hydrophilic modification.•Excellent fouling resistance was achieved by the hydrophilic membrane.•Molecular design and re-construction indicates an efficient route to antifouling membrane preparation.