Effect of Surface Modification of Polyamide-Based Reverse Osmosis Membranes by Glycerol Monoacrylate–Butyl Acrylate Copolymers on Antifouling

Suppression of membrane fouling is essential for making reverse osmosis (RO) membrane systems more economical. In the present study, we synthesized polymers bearing a glycerol monoacrylate moiety as an antifouling unit and a butyl acrylate moiety as a membrane-adsorbing unit. We modified RO membranes by immersion in solutions of the synthesized copolymers as a simple antifouling method. We evaluated the membrane antifouling performance by assessing its permeability to bovine serum albumin as a foulant. Compared with the pristine membrane, the copolymer-modified RO membrane had a higher normalized water permeability and longer water retention (24 h). This enhancement was attributed to the hydrophilicity of the glycerol monoacrylate moiety, membrane modification by the butyl acrylate moiety, and the formation of intermediate water with a small quantity of nonfreezing water in the polymer, as determined by differential scanning calorimetry.