Surface modification of ceramic-supported polyethersulfone membranes by interfacial polymerization for reduced membrane fouling

This study reports a simple and effective route for the hydrophilic surface modification of ceramic-supported polyethersulfone membranes by synthesizing a poly(vinyl alcohol)/polyamide composite thin surface layer with an interfacial polymerization method. The fabricated membranes were characterized with XPS, SEM, and contact angle measurements, and, the effects of hydrophilic surface modification on the membrane flux and oil rejection in the treatment of oil-in-water (O/W) microemulsions were experiment ally studied. All the characterizations and filtration results showed that, the hydrophilic surface modification was achieved successfully and consequently reduced the membrane fouling effectively. The presented route is valuable for developing robust membranes with a low level of membrane fouling in the separation of O/W microemulsions.