Reductant-assisted polydopamine-modified membranes for efficient water purification
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Reductant-assisted polydopamine-modified membranes for efficient water purification Feng Sun1*, Jinren Lu1*, Yuhong Wang2, Jie Xiong1, Congjie Gao1, Jia Xu (✉)1 1 Key Laboratory of Marine Chemistry Theory and Technology (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China 2 National Center of Ocean Standards and Metrology, Tianjin 300112, China
© Higher Education Press 2020
Abstract Surface engineering with polydopamine coatings has been considered a promising surface functionalisation tool. However, it is difficult to control the selfpolymerisation for polydopamine formation, which usually causes severe interparticle aggregation. In this study, polydopamine self-polymerisation was controlled by adjusting its reducing environment using a reductant (NaBH4) to fabricate mixed cellulose ester (MCE)/ polydopamine membranes. An oxidising environment using NaIO4 was additionally tested as the control. The results showed that a thin polydopamine coating with small polydopamine particles was formed on the skeleton frameworks of the MCE membrane with NaBH4, and the self-polymerisation rate was suppressed. The polydopamine coating formed in the reducing environment facilitated excellent water transport performance with a water permeance of approximately 400 L$m–2$h–1$bar–1 as well as efficient organic foulant removal with a bovine serum albumin rejection of approximately 90%. In addition, the polydopamine coating with NaBH4 exhibited both excellent chemical stability and anti-microbial activity, demonstrating the contribution of the reducing environment to the performance of the MCE/polydopamine membranes. It shows significant potential for use in water purification. Keywords membrane, water purification, polydopamine, reducing environment, self-polymerization control
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Introduction
As one of the most important processes of separation, water purification is critical to address the growing global Received June 12, 2020; accepted July 6, 2020 E-mail: [email protected] *These authors contributed equally to this work.
concerns pertaining to water pollution and shortage [1]. Membrane technologies such as ultrafiltration and nanofiltration have been employed successfully in various applications to remove pollutants from contaminated water and produce fresh water, such as in wastewater treatment, seawater desalination, reclamation, and drinking water production [2–5]. Membranes form the core of membrane technology. Extensive research has been conducted on improving the separation performance of membranes by developing advanced membrane materials and fabrication approaches. There are two approaches to membrane fabrication: surface modification, and phase inversion. Surface modification such as coating and grafting is considered a versatile approach to tailoring membrane surfaces with desirable properties [6,7]. Recently, inspired by the adhesive nature of catechols and amines in mussel adhesive proteins, dopa
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