School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, Arizona State University, United States; Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States.
Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research (ZIWR), Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sde-Boker, 84990, Israel.
Water Res. 2018 Nov 15;145:599-607. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2018.08.068. Epub 2018 Aug 31.
This study investigates the biofouling resistance of modified reverse osmosis (RO) feed spacers. Control spacers (made of polypropylene) were functionalized with a biocidal coating (silver), hydrophilic (SiO nanoparticles) or superhydrophobic (TMPSi-TiO nanoparticles) anti-adhesive coatings, or a hybrid hydrophilic-biocidal coating (graphene oxide). Performance was measured by adhesion assays, viability tests, and permeate flow decline in a bench scale RO system. The control spacers proved to be one of the better performing materials based on bacterial deposition and dynamic RO fouling experiments. The good anti-adhesive properties of the control can be explained by its near ideal surface free energy (SFE). The only surface modification that significantly reduced biofouling compared to the control was the biocidal silver coating, which outperformed the other spacers by all measured indicators. Therefore, future efforts to improve spacer materials for biofouling control should focus on engineering biocidal coatings, rather than anti-adhesive ones.
本研究考察了改性反渗透（RO）给料间隔物的抗生物污染性能。对照间隔物（由聚丙烯制成）用杀生物涂层（银）、亲水（SiO2 纳米颗粒）或超疏水（TMPSi-TiO2 纳米颗粒）抗粘连涂层或混合亲水-杀生物涂层（氧化石墨烯）进行了功能化。通过粘附性测定、生存能力测试和在台架规模 RO 系统中的渗透流量下降来测量性能。根据细菌沉积和动态 RO 污染实验，对照间隔物被证明是表现较好的材料之一。对照物具有近乎理想的表面自由能（SFE），这可以解释其良好的抗粘连性能。与对照相比，唯一显著降低生物污染的表面改性是杀生物银涂层，它在所有测量指标上都优于其他间隔物。因此，未来为控制生物污染而改进间隔物材料的工作应集中在工程杀生物涂层上，而不是抗粘连涂层上。
