Development of Antifouling Ultrafiltration Membranes
A special issue of Membranes (ISSN 2077-0375). This special issue belongs to the section "Membrane Applications".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 September 2022) | Viewed by 1909
Special Issue Editors
Interests: ultrafiltration; microfiltration; nanofiltration; gas separation; hollow fiber membranes; membrane contactors; reinforced hollow fiber membranes; integrated membrane processes
Interests: polymer membrane; polymer membrane modification; membrane separation processes; ultrafiltration; pervaporation; nanofiltration; gas separation; thin film composite membranes; biodegradable polymers; smart membranes; smart polymers; mixed matrix membranes; polymer solutions
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In recent years, consumption of fresh water has been increased due to the population growth and rapid industry development. Pressure-driven separation processes are commonly used membrane processes for surface water pretreatment and wastewater reclamation/reuse including micro-, ultra-, nanofiltration and reverse osmosis. However, membrane fouling is known to be a severe unsolved problem that prevents sustainable membrane application and leads to the increased energy demand, flux decline, deterioration of separation performance and decrease of membrane lifetime. Membrane fouling reduces the efficiency of the separation process and significantly increases the cost of separation. This is because of one or a combination of the following reasons; i.e., decrease of the flux through the membrane due to the formation of a gel-like diffusion barrier layer, biodegradation of the membrane-forming polymer and materials of the membrane module, the formation of concentrated populations of pathogenic microorganisms on the membrane surface, increasing energy consumption, the need for frequent chemical cleaning, reducing the usage time of the membrane and contamination of the filtrate. The costs for cleaning consisting of costs for water, cleaning chemicals and wastewater are together with electricity by far the most dominating operation expenditures of membrane plants. The main methods to prevent fouling before its occurrence are pre-treatment of the feed streams, chemical modification to improve the anti-fouling properties of a membrane, and optimization of the operational conditions. Membrane surface properties such as chemical structure, hydrophilicity, roughness and charge are known to determine separation performance and fouling resistance. An effective strategy for suppression of membrane fouling is to minimize attractive interactions between the membrane surface and components of the feed by chemical modification of the membrane surface, which can be implemented by increasing membrane surface charge to promote electrostatic repulsion and hydrophilization to increase water–surface interaction.
We are pleased to invite you to contribute to the present Special Issue. It focuses on the development of antifouling membranes using various membrane modification strategies and novel approaches of membrane preparation. The Special Issue aims to cover the latest progress in the design of antifouling membrane surfaces including membrane polymer modification (pre-modification), blending of the membrane polymer with a modifying agent (additive) and surface modification after membrane preparation (post-modification) (grafting, coating, immobilization).
In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Development of antifouling membranes;
- Membrane modification;
- Modification using polyelectrolytes;
- Modification using block-copolymers;
- Modification using nanoparticles;
- Hydrophilization of membrane;
- Smart membranes;
- Self-cleaning membranes;
- Water treatment;
- Grafting;
- Coating;
- Immobilization;
- Layer-by-layer;
- Photocatalytic membranes.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Prof. Dr. Alexandr V. Bildyukevich
Dr. Tatiana V. Plisko
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- antifouling membrane
- membrane modification
- polyelectrolytes
- block-copolymers
- hydrophilic additives
- nanoparticles
- blending
- grafting
- smart self-cleaning membranes
- water treatment
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