Green and sustainable method of manufacturing anti-fouling zwitterionic polymers-modified poly(vinyl chloride) ultrafiltration membranes

Wancen Xie; Alberto Tiraferri; Xuanyu Ji; Chen Chen; Yuhua Bai; John C Crittenden; Baicang Liu

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2021.01.107

Green and sustainable method of manufacturing anti-fouling zwitterionic polymers-modified poly(vinyl chloride) ultrafiltration membranes

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2021 Jun:591:343-351. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.01.107. Epub 2021 Feb 3.

Authors

Wancen Xie¹, Alberto Tiraferri², Xuanyu Ji¹, Chen Chen³, Yuhua Bai⁴, John C Crittenden⁵, Baicang Liu⁶

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Deep Earth Science and Engineering (Ministry of Education), College of Architecture and Environment, Institute of New Energy and Low-Carbon Technology, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610207, PR China; Yibin Institute of Industrial Technology, Sichuan University Yibin Park, Yibin 644000, PR China.
² Department of Environment, Land and Infrastructure Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Turin, Italy.
³ Litree Purifying Technology Co., Ltd, Haikou, Hainan 571126, PR China.
⁴ Infrastructure Construction Department, Chengdu University, Chengdu 610106, PR China.
⁵ Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.
⁶ Key Laboratory of Deep Earth Science and Engineering (Ministry of Education), College of Architecture and Environment, Institute of New Energy and Low-Carbon Technology, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610207, PR China; Yibin Institute of Industrial Technology, Sichuan University Yibin Park, Yibin 644000, PR China. Electronic address: bcliu@scu.edu.cn.

PMID: 33618292
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.01.107

Abstract

The nonsolvent induced phase separation (NIPS) method for ultrafiltration (UF) membrane fabrication relies on the extensive use of traditional solvents, thus ranking first in terms of ecological impacts among all the membrane fabrication steps. Methyl-5-(dimethylamino)-2-methyl-5-oxopentanoate (PolarClean), as a green solvent, was utilized in this study to fabricate poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) UF membranes. Subsequently, in post-treatment process, zwitterionic polymer, [2-(methacryloyloxy) ethyl] dimethyl-(3-sulfopropyl) ammonium hydroxide (DMAPS), was grafted onto the membrane surface to enhance its anti-fouling properties using a greener surface-initiated activator regenerated by electron transfer-atom transfer radical polymerization (ARGET-ATRP) reaction. This novel method used low toxicity chemicals, avoiding the environmental hazards of traditional ATRP, and greatly improving the reaction efficiency. We systematically studied the grafting time effect on the resulted membranes using sodium alginate as the foulant, and found that short grafting time (30 min) achieved excellent membrane performance: pure water permeability of 2872 L m^-2 h^-1 bar^-1, flux recovery ratio of 86.4% after 7-hour fouling test, and foulant rejection of 96.0%. This work discusses for the first time the greener procedures with lower environmental impacts in both fabrication and modification processes of PVC UF membranes.

Keywords: ARGET-ATRP; DMAPS; Green solvent; Poly(vinyl chloride) PVC; Ultrafiltration.