Multilayer-coated hydrogel membranes with comprehensive fouling resistance and stability for wastewater treatment

Organic fouling was one of the most fatal weakness for membranes applied in water treatment. Aiming at overcoming the defect of liable to contamination and achieving efficient circulation and long-term stable operation, it was reported a kind of multilayer-loaded hydrogels membranes with superior antifouling property. Hydrogel coating mixture were coated onto PES substrate layer by layer and then cross-linked by ambient free radical blending polymerization reaction endowing the membrane with interpenetrating network structure and super hydrophilic surface. The FT-IR, FESEM, and AFM were used to character the structure and morphology of obtained membranes. Dynamic contact Angle, BET and membrane performance evaluation instrument were used to evaluate the membrane performance. Compared with quantitative single layer-coated membrane, the four layers-coated hydrogel membrane exhibited more excellent and stable performance in terms of flux, rejection and fouling resistance. In particular, the water flux of the four layers-coated hydrogel membrane increased by about 25%. When 0.5 g/L BSA was selected as simulated protein contamination liquid, flux recovery rate (FRR) of four layers-coated hydrogel membranes was up to 86.33%, indicating excellent long-term tolerance and resistance to proteins. It must be pointed out that four layers were the maximum loading number of the ambient self-crosslinking hydrogel CQAS casting solution within the limit air-cured time. On the whole, the multi-layer coated hydrogel membranes showed practical application value in the field of water treatment.