Protein fouling of cellulose acetate microfiltration membranes modified by the deposition of amino acid L-DOPA

摘要

Flux decline of the membranes due to fouling is a major drawback in the wide-scale application of the membrane separation process in the aqueous environments. A typical case is the protein fouling of microfiltration membranes when used in the applications such as food industries or water treatment. Filtration-induced protein deposition and protein adsorption are two distinct mechanisms which simultaneously affect the membrane flux decline. A number of works have tried to modify the surface of the microfiltration membranes in order to reduce the membrane fouling. Some of them demonstrated a lower flux decline for the modified membranes compared to the unmodified ones. However, some other works found the membrane fouling to be independent of the membrane surface chemistry while it occurs primarily due to the physical deposition of protein aggregates.