The design of surface microstructure and investigation of anti-fouling performance of a PVDF membrane with dual"rigid-flexible"synergistic anti-fouling effect
This work uses the"surface deposition-grafting"method to introduce three types of hydrophilic chains with different rigid-flexible properties,namely styrene-maleic anhydride(SMA),melamine(MEL),and glucose(GLU),onto the surface of polyvinylidene fluoride(PVDF)membranes.The influence of the rigidity and flexibility of the grafted chains on the anti-bovine serum albumin(BSA)fouling performance was investigated.The results show that the effects of the rigidity and flexibility of the grafted chains on BSA adhesion to the membrane surface and the microstructure of the membrane surface fouling layer are more significant than the effects of the surface hydrophilicity and charge properties.Rigid MEL impedes the adhesion and aggregation of BSA on the membrane surface,while flexible GLU can synergistically enhance the rejection of BSA with MEL while enhancing the hydrophilicity of the membrane.This delays its aggregation on the membrane surface,further preventing the accumulation of BSA on the membrane surface,and reducing the proportion of irreversible fouling resistance to only 2.47%.The dual"rigid-flexible"synergistic anti-fouling effect significantly improves the anti-fouling performance of the membrane.