College of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, PR China.
Department of Chemical Engineering, Lakehead University, 955 Oliver Road, Thunder Bay, Ontario P7B5E1, Canada.
Bioresour Technol. 2016 Sep;216:691-8. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2016.06.008. Epub 2016 Jun 3.
Developing strategies that allow tuning anti-adhesion ability of membranes in membrane bioreactors (MBRs) is of primary interest in membrane fouling research. In this study, interaction energies between foulants and membrane in three different interaction scenarios were systematically assessed based on thermodynamic methods. It was found that, membrane surface electron donor tension (γ(-)) rather than surface hydrophilicity was a more reliable indicator to predict adsorptive fouling. The interaction energy would be continuously repulsive in the initial range of separation distance when membrane γ(-) is higher than a critical value, suggesting that designing membrane with γ(-) higher than a critical value would confer membrane with high anti-adhesion ability. It was also found that, zeta potential on the membrane surface exerted certain effects on adsorptive fouling. This study proposed a novel strategy regarding adjusting membrane γ(-) to tune anti-adhesion ability of membrane, and also offered a thermodynamic theoretical background to this strategy.
开发能够调整膜生物反应器（MBR）中膜抗粘连能力的策略是膜污染研究的首要关注点。在这项研究中，基于热力学方法系统评估了三种不同相互作用情况下污染物和膜之间的相互作用能。结果表明，膜表面电子供体张力（γ(-)）而不是表面亲水性是预测吸附性污染更可靠的指标。当膜γ(-)高于临界值时，在初始分离距离范围内，相互作用能将持续具有斥力，这表明设计γ(-)高于临界值的膜将赋予膜高抗粘连能力。还发现膜表面的动电位对吸附性污染有一定的影响。本研究提出了一种通过调节膜γ(-)来调整膜抗粘连能力的新策略，并为该策略提供了热力学理论背景。
