Prince J A, Bhuvana S, Anbharasi V, Ayyanar N, Boodhoo K V K, Singh G
1] Environmental &Water Technology - Centre of Innovation, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore 599489 [2] School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, United Kingdom.
Environmental &Water Technology - Centre of Innovation, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore 599489.
Sci Rep. 2014 Oct 9;4:6555. doi: 10.1038/srep06555.
Bio-fouling is a serious problem in many membrane-based separation processes for water and wastewater treatment. Current state of the art methods to overcome this are to modify the membranes with either hydrophilic additives or with an antibacterial compound. In this study, we propose and practise a novel concept to prevent bio-fouling by developing a killing and self-cleaning membrane surface incorporating antibacterial silver nanoparticles and highly hydrophilic negatively charged carboxylic and amine functional groups. The innovative surface chemistry helps to reduce the contact angle of the novel membrane by at least a 48% and increase the pure water flux by 39.4% compared to the control membrane. The flux drop for the novel membrane is also lower (16.3% of the initial flux) than the control membrane (55.3% of the initial flux) during the long term experiments with protein solution. Moreover, the novel membrane continues to exhibit inhibition to microbes even after 1320 min of protein filtration. Synthesis of self-cleaning ultrafiltration membrane with long lasting properties opens up a viable solution for bio-fouling in ultrafiltration application for wastewater purification.
生物污染是许多用于水和废水处理的膜基分离过程中的一个严重问题。目前克服这一问题的先进方法是用亲水性添加剂或抗菌化合物对膜进行改性。在本研究中，我们提出并实践了一种新颖的概念，即通过开发一种结合抗菌银纳米颗粒和高亲水性带负电荷的羧基和胺官能团的具有杀菌和自清洁功能的膜表面来防止生物污染。与对照膜相比，这种创新的表面化学有助于使新型膜的接触角至少降低48%，并使纯水通量提高39.4%。在蛋白质溶液的长期实验中，新型膜的通量下降（初始通量的16.3%）也低于对照膜（初始通量的55.3%）。此外，即使在蛋白质过滤1320分钟后，新型膜仍继续表现出对微生物的抑制作用。合成具有持久性能的自清洁超滤膜为废水净化超滤应用中的生物污染问题提供了一种可行的解决方案。
