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Antifouling polyethersulfone membrane blended with a dual-mode amphiphilic copolymer

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Abstract

Membrane fouling is one of the major challenges facing widespread application of membrane technology, and antifouling membranes have the advantages of increased production capacity and decreased operation costs. In this work, polyethersulfone membrane with superior antifouling property was fabricated through the facile blending of a dual-mode amphiphilic copolymer, poly(N-methyl-D-glucamine)-block-polydimethylsiloxane-block-poly(N-methyl-D-glucamine) (PNMG-b-PDMS-b-PNMG). Surface enrichment of the amphiphilic copolymer was expected to occur during the coagulation step of the phase inversion process, which endowed the modified membranes with dual-mode antifouling ability of fouling repulsion and fouling release. Filtration experiments showed that water flux and BSA solution flux of the blend membranes were significantly enhanced. The blend membranes also showed improved antifouling properties with flux recovery ratio as high as 97 % after three cycles of BSA filtration. These results provide an effective way for the preparation of low-fouling membrane in the fields of water treatment, protein separation, and blood purification.

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Acknowledgements

This study is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation of China (No. 21174027), Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (No. NCET-12-0827), and Program of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities (No.111-2-04).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, People’s Republic of China

    Dapeng Liu, Tianbai Wang & Chunju He

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  1. Dapeng Liu
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  2. Tianbai Wang
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  3. Chunju He
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Correspondence to Chunju He.

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Liu, D., Wang, T. & He, C. Antifouling polyethersulfone membrane blended with a dual-mode amphiphilic copolymer. J Mater Sci 51, 7383–7394 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-016-9904-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-016-9904-9

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