Engineering of Polymer Membranes Incorporated with High Performance Antifouling Functional groups

Abstract

A versatile approach towards enhanced energy efficient and long term utilization of Poly Ether Sulphone (PES) membranes has been developed. Bactericidal functional groups were incorporated to fabricate antifouling polymer membranes via phase inversion method. The effect of added antifouling groups on the morphology and performance of the newly fabricated membranes was investigated in terms of flux and fouling parameters. The resulting membranes were characterized by FTIR, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), AFM, and Sessile drop method before further subjected to water permeation and antifouling tests. The water contact angle measurement confirmed the increased hydrophilicity of the modified membranes and pore density increases with an increase in antiseptic loading. The pore size however decreased as observed by SEM. In addition, it has been observed that the antifouling property has been increased up to seventy five percent.