(685a) Influence of Polydopamine Deposition Conditions On Oil/Water Fouling Resistance and Properties of Polysulfone Ultrafiltration Membrane

One of the major challenges in water purification membrane application is fouling which leads to permeate flux decline and/or increase in transmembrane pressure difference. Membrane surface modification can be used to develop anti-fouling membrane via several approaches such as increasing surface hydrophilicity, decreasing surface roughness, or decreasing surface charge. A facile method of membrane surface coating by using “polydopamine” has proved to enhance fouling resistance of several types of membrane to oil/water fouling due to its high hydrophilicity. Polydopamine reacts from dopamine and coats on virtually any surfaces where the reaction conditions are major key parameters to control the deposition of the coating. These reaction conditions include dopamine concentration, reaction time, pH of buffered reaction solution, oxygen content, etc.

In this study, the influence of polydopamine deposition conditions on fouling resistance of flat-sheet polysulfone ultrafiltration is evaluated via crossflow fouling tests. In addition, the membrane properties such as pure water permeance, surface hydrophilicity, molecular weight cut off are determined to gain a fundamental understanding of this coating at various reaction conditions.