Influence of diazonium‐induced surface grafting on PES NF membrane fouling reduction in algal‐rich water treatment

Abstract The algae bloom phenomenon incurs a major challenge to conventional drinking water treatment processes due to the discharges of a large amount of intracellular pollutant and odor compounds in the water sources. Membrane processes have been considered as promising technologies to treatment of algal‐rich water due to complete algal cell rejection however, its application has been limited by membrane fouling. In this work, the high‐performance loose antifouling PES NF membranes were fabricated using diazonium‐induced grafting and applied for treating real algal effluent. The modified membranes exhibited complete algal dye removal and turbidity removal throughout the long‐term filtration. Also, the coupling and radically modified membranes can be able to removed COD by up to 90% and 88%, respectively, while a removal efficiency of 24% was observed for bare membrane. It is worth noting that, a relative smooth behavior in permeate flux by loose modified membranes during prolonged algal dye filtration, demonstrating exceptional anti‐fouling property of membranes. In addition, the fouled modified membranes were effectively recovered by water flushing. Both loose modified membranes exhibited excellent resistance in the strongly acidic environment. These high performance antifouling NF membranes affords an innovative methodology toward the treatment of algal‐rich water.