Effect of Perfluoropolymer Coating on Water Transport Properties in Membranes

Abstract

One of the major challenges in membranes for wastewater treatment is to mitigate the surface adsorption of biofoulants, which would otherwise decrease water permeance and increase operating cost. The goal of this work is to modify commercial ultrafiltration (UF) membrane by surface coating of a non-sticky thin film that decreases the accumulation of foulants. Specifically, Teflon AF ® 1600, a perfluoropolymer with low surface energy, was selected for coating due to its non-sticky behavior for many contaminants. We have prepared the coatings on commercial polyethersulfone (PES-2) UF membrane using solutions containing 0.1% 0.05% 0.02% 0.01% 0.1% 0.2% 0.3% and 0.5% of Teflon AF1600. Surface morphology was characterized using several techniques such as scanning electron microscope (SEM), goniometer, etc. The properties of water transport, salt rejection and anti-fouling properties were evaluated using dead-end filtration systems. The membranes coated with Teflon AF 1600 demonstrate enhanced antifouling properties and high rejection of salt, compared with uncoated ones.