Engineering the Hollow Fiber PVDF Membrane with TA-GO Material for Excellent Hydrophilic and Antifouling Potentials in Membrane Bioreactors (MBRs)
摘要
Developing PVDF hollow fiber with well antifouling ability is a great essential for the implementation of membrane bioreactor (MBR). Herein, a novel hydrophilic and PVDF hollow fiber antifouling membrane was prepared via grafting graphene oxide (GO) materials with tannic acid (TA) coating as a transition layer to link the PVDF membrane and GO materials. The morphology of the membrane’s outer surface and cross section was examined using SEM. Sections of dried hollow fibred membrane cross-section specimens were obtained using liquid nitrogen freeze fracturing. The sample surfaces and cross sections following gold sputtering were observed with the SEM. Primary PVDF and revised PVDF membrane were described with attenuated total reflection FTIR (NICOLE 6700, Hot Electronics, USA), and the functional groups of grafting and their chemical composition were analyzed by spectral observation. TA coating deposited on the PVDF surface under a mild condition and thus kept the original structure of the PVDF membrane. The uniformly dispersed TA nanocomposite acted as a spatial brush to mitigate fouling on the membrane surface, resulting in the NH2-GO/TA/PVDF membranes demonstrating better hydrophilicity (the contact angle 106 decrease to 81°), better permeability (1.54-fold), and higher flux recovery (96%) in MBR filtration compared to the virgin PVDF membrane. Regarding the degradation of pollutants, removal of COD by the modified membranes was maintained above 94%, and the removal rate of NH+4-N at around 59%. Additionally, the contaminants of the NH2-GO/TA/PVDF membrane surface were poorer than the original PVDF membrane, indicating that modified membranes have exhibited some antifouling performance in high-concentration microbial collection and high-salt wastewater treatment.