Enhanced fouling-resistance performance of polypropylene hollow fiber membrane fabricated by ultrasonic-assisted graft polymerization of acrylic acid

摘要

Central to the design and execution of fouling-resistance strategies is the invention of hydrophilic polymer amenable to economically viable water treatment. Here, an ultrasonic-assisted approach enabled the hydrophilicity created by grafting acrylic acid (AA) onto the polypropylene hollow fiber membrane (PPM). It is worth noting that the graft density of AA on PPM surface was obviously enhanced due to the effect of ultrasonic cavitation. When the graft density of AA is up to 0.82 mg/cm(2), the water contact angle is sharply decreased to 48.2 degrees C. However, the rejection efficiency of PPM to Bovine serum albumin (BSA) and the pure water flux (301.7 L/m(2) h) is gradually increased with the improvement of graft density, which comes up to 96% and 186%, respectively, accompanied with largely enhanced water flux recovery efficiency (FRR) exceeding 92%, in contrast with the virgin PPM. It is great of interest that the enhanced surface energy for PPM, together with great improvement of polar component over 1071% and 15,595%, respectively, endowed the strong interfacial hydration layer on the surface of PPM, resulting in the high water flux, excellent rejection efficiency of PPM to BSA and FRR efficiency.