Antifouling and Flux Enhancement of Reverse Osmosis Membrane by Grafting Poly (3-Sulfopropyl Methacrylate) Brushes
Reema Mushtaq,
Muhammad Asad Abbas,
Shehla Mushtaq,
Nasir M. Ahmad,
Niaz Ali Khan,
Asad U. Khan,
Wu Hong,
Rehan Sadiq,
Zhongyi Jiang
Affiliations
Reema Mushtaq
Polymer Research Lab, School of Chemical and Material Engineering, NUST, H-12, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
Muhammad Asad Abbas
Polymer Research Lab, School of Chemical and Material Engineering, NUST, H-12, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
Shehla Mushtaq
Polymer Research Lab, School of Chemical and Material Engineering, NUST, H-12, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
Nasir M. Ahmad
Polymer Research Lab, School of Chemical and Material Engineering, NUST, H-12, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
Niaz Ali Khan
Key Laboratory for Green Chemical Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
Asad U. Khan
Department of Chemical Engineering, COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus, Lahore 54000, Pakistan
Wu Hong
Key Laboratory for Green Chemical Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
Rehan Sadiq
School of Engineering, University of British Columbia (Okanagan), 3333 University Way, Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7, Canada
Zhongyi Jiang
Key Laboratory for Green Chemical Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
A commercial thin film composite (TFC) polyamide (PA) reverse osmosis membrane was grafted with 3-sulfopropyl methacrylate potassium (SPMK) to produce PA-g-SPMK by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). The grafting of PA was done at varied concentrations of SPMK, and its effect on the surface composition and morphology was studied by Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), optical profilometry, and contact angle analysis. The grafting of hydrophilic ionically charged PSPMK polymer brushes having acrylate and sulfonate groups resulted in enhanced hydrophilicity rendering a reduction of contact angle from 58° of pristine membrane sample labeled as MH0 to 10° for a modified membrane sample labeled as MH3. Due to the increased hydrophilicity, the flux rate rises from 57.1 L m−2 h−1 to 71.2 L m−2 h−1, and 99% resistance against microbial adhesion (Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus) was obtained for MH3 after modification
