Abstract
This study investigates the bacterial anti-adhesion
performance of uncoated and coated reverse osmosis (RO)
membranes. All the membranes were commercially available
fully-aromatic thin-film composite (TFC) polyamide (PA)
membranes. Two of the TFC PA membranes (SW30 and BW30)
were coated using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) coating, while
the other three membranes (LE, XLE and NF90) were
uncoated. Among the characterised TFC PA membranes, the
PVA coated were more hydrophilic and their surface energy
was higher in comparison to uncoated. In addition, the
PVA coated membranes had lower surface roughness. AFM
interaction force measurement demonstrated higher
repellence performance for the more polar surface.
Bacteria attachment test showed differences between the
coated and the uncoated membranes. Indeed, the increase
in hydrophilicity and surface polarity showed decrease in
the attachment of Pseudomonas aeruginosa cells. Moreover,
the results demonstrated that the surface polarity showed
better correlation with the attachment of the bacteria.
In addition, the type of the surface roughness may
somehow contribute to the bacteria repellence
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1-7 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Journal of Coating Science and Technology |
| Volume | 1 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2014 |
| MoE publication type | A1 Journal article-refereed |
Keywords
- thin film composites
- polyamide membranes
- polyvinyl alcohol
- surface energy
- topography
- biofouling