Antifouling polysulfone membranes with an amphiphilic triblock additive

Triblock amphiphilic oligomers polydiol terephthalate polyvinylpyrrolidone (PDT-(PVP)(2)) were synthesized as the additive for the preparation of antifouling polysulfone (PSf) membranes. The influences of oligomer contents on membrane properties such as wettability, morphology, porosity, antifouling, etc were investigated. Among the synthesized oligomers, the one with the medium hydrophobic chain length at a blending percentage of 1.5% exhibited better filtration/antifouling performances. The contact angle of the blend membrane can reach as low as 60.3. The water permeation of the blend membrane was increased from 85.1 L/(m(2)h) for the pristine PSf membrane to a maximum of 210.0 L/(m(2)h) for the blend membrane. All three oligomer blended membranes can achieve a bovine serum albumin rejection ratio of over 95.0%. The minimum amount of protein adsorbed on the blend membrane is ~9.73 mu g/cm(2). Moreover, the flux recovery ratio of the blend membranes is remarkably higher than that of the pristine membrane. Surface atomic content and water contact angle measurements suggested that the amphiphilic oligomers migrated to the surface of the membrane during membrane formation process, and microstructure photographs of the membranes indicated that the amphiphilic oligomer accelerated the pore formation speed, all of which correlated well with the filtration and antifouling results. Moreover, there is no obvious deviation of water contact angles on the membrane surfaces before and after treatment in boiling water, which means that the amphiphilic oligomers were hardly washed off from the membrane, thus, the as-prepared amphiphilic PDT-(PVP)(2) oligomers are able to exhibit sustainable antifouling ability.

Automated summary

The application of amphiphilic oligomers in the preparation of antifouling polysulfone membranes was studied. It was found that the addition of an appropriate amount of amphiphilic oligomers can significantly improve the filtration performance and antifouling ability of the membranes.