Co-hydrolyzed bio-inspired antifouling coatings for functional membranes in oily wastewater treatment

Molecular force measurements and antifouling test results showed that incorporating zwitterionic and fluorine-containing silane not only regulated the Schiff base and Michael addition reaction rates, enabling the formation of a uniform surface coating, but also provided a stable hydration layer and low-surface-energy sites to enhance the fouling resistance and fouling release properties of the prepared antifouling surfaces. The proposed coating can be extended for membrane surface functionalization, showing enhanced water flux (over 5700 L m^-2 h^-1 bar^-1) and excellent separation performance of oil-in-water emulsions even in the presence of additional bio-foulants, with a flux recovery ratio over 90 %. This study proposes and validates a co-hydrolysis strategy that enables precise control over the structure and morphology of phenol/amino-based coating systems by modulating steric and hydration effects as well as electrostatic repulsion between reactive colloids. This strategy can be extended to other phenol/amino-based coating systems to modulate surface functionality and morphology through interfacial design.