Surface Grafting of Reverse Osmosis Membrane with Chlorhexidine Using Biopolymer Alginate Dialdehyde as a Facile Green Platform for In Situ Biofouling Control

• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c06037
• Publication Date: 2020-07-23T20:48:56Z
• Authors: Rashid Khan; Han Wang; Yufang Li; Shuyan Yu; M. Kamran Khan; Kang Xiao; Xia Huang
• Keywords: Biofouling; Biopolymer; Zeta potential; Surface Modification

We report a new robust and green facile platform for nonoxidizing chemical grafting to simultaneously improve antifouling antibacterial properties of thin film composite (TFC) polyamide (PA) reverse osmosis (RO) membranes. In this work, alginate dialdehyde (ADA) was used as graft chlorhexidine (CH), chemical, on TFC-RO membrane surface. A synergistic effect due ADA CH revealed. The modified surfaces were characterized using XPS, FT-IR, AFM, SEM-EDS, contact angle, zeta potential analysis. simple two-step Schiff base reaction performed. Improved salt rejection performances observed the grafted PA membranes at expense negligible flux drop CH-ADA-PA (38 42 L m–2 h–1) compared with pristine (45 h–1). All had excellent activity against E. coli along highly superior resistance formation biofilms. Organic fouling behaviors protein (bovine serum albumin, BSA) surfactant (dodecyl trimethylammonium bromide, DTAB) investigated typical foulants results indicated that showed best performance followed by ADA-PA membranes, being most inferior. Hence, these pave way bioinspired route practical application in RO control.