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PAN ultrafiltration membranes grafted with natural amino acids for improving antifouling property

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Abstract

In this report, antifouling polyacrylonitrile (PAN) ultrafiltration membranes were prepared from blends of PAN/polyglycidyl methacrylate (PGMA) via phase inversion method followed by the grafting of natural amino acids through epoxy ring-opening reaction. The grafted PAN membranes possessed highly stable hydrophilic surfaces as a result of the grafting of amino acids, which was adequately demonstrated in attenuated total reflectance–Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR/FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and contact angle measurements. The results of tensile strength and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images further proved that the surface modification had little effect on their mechanical properties, surface, and cross-sectional morphologies. Meanwhile, remarkable resistance against bovine serum albumin (BSA) and lysozyme (Lyz) fouling was observed for the neutral amino acid-based PAN membranes due to the formation of zwitterionic hydration layer on the membrane surface, while PAN membranes grafted with charged amino acids were able to prohibit the approach of like charged proteins with reduced deposition and provide the driving force for oppositely charged protein adsorption. Furthermore, the ultrafiltration and antifouling performance of PAN membranes were investigated by BSA filtration experiments. Compared with the pristine PAN membrane, all the modified PAN membranes exhibited higher pure water flux, better flux recovery ratio, lower rejection, less total permeation resistance, and preferable stability, having potential applications in protein separation and purification.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project 51373034 and 50903016), the Department of Science & Technology of Jiangsu Province, China (Projects BA2013037 and BY2015070-11), and the Fundamental Research Fund (Southeast University 2242016K40081). It is also funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions.

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  1. Yufang Liu and Chen Xu have contributed equally.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, 211189, China

    Yufang Liu, Chen Xu, Binbin Xie & Chen Yao

  2. Suzhou Faith & Hope Membrane Technology Co., Ltd., Suzhou, 215000, China

    Wenhan Hu & Yi Li

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  1. Yufang Liu
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  2. Chen Xu
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  3. Binbin Xie
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Correspondence to Chen Yao.

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Liu, Y., Xu, C., Xie, B. et al. PAN ultrafiltration membranes grafted with natural amino acids for improving antifouling property. J Coat Technol Res 15, 403–414 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11998-017-9995-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11998-017-9995-5

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