Polyethylenimine Linked Glycidol Surface Antifouling Reverse Osmosis Membrane

Improving the antifouling performance of the widely used industrial polyamide thin-film-composite reverse osmosis (RO) membrane has recently attracted increasing attention as the RO membrane is inherently prone to fouling, which may seriously deteriorate separation performance and membrane lifespan. In this paper, taking advantage of unreacted acid chloride groups on the surface of the polyamide membrane, we used multiterminal amino group polyethylenimine (PEI) as the linker and used glycidol as the hydrophilic surface modifier to prepare the antifouling reverse osmosis membrane. We aimed to improve the hydrophilicity of the RO membrane by increasing the number density of terminal amino groups of the linker on the polyamide surface. After 9 continuous BSA fouling tests, the flux recovery rate of the glycidol-modified membrane with PEI as linker can reach 98.2%. The enhanced antifouling effect of the method using PEI as the linker and glycidol as the hydrophilic modifier offers insights into new types of antifouling RO membrane development opportunities.