• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• 제1권2호
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• pp.103-120
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• 2010

Surface modification of microfiltration and ultrafiltration membranes has been widely used to improve the protein adsorption resistance and permeation properties of hydrophobic membranes. Several surface modification methods for converting conventional membranes into low-protein-binding membranes are reviewed. They are categorized as either physical modification or chemical modification of the membrane surface. Physical modification of the membrane surface can be achieved by coating it with hydrophilic polymers, hydrophilic-hydrophobic copolymers, surfactants or proteins. Another method of physical modification is plasma treatment with gases. A hydrophilic membrane surface can be also generated during phase-inverted micro-separation during membrane formation, by blending hydrophilic or hydrophilic-hydrophobic polymers with a hydrophobic base membrane polymer. The most widely used method of chemical modification is surface grafting of a hydrophilic polymer by UV polymerization because it is the easiest method; the membranes are dipped into monomers with and without photo-initiators, then irradiated with UV. Plasma-induced polymerization of hydrophilic monomers on the surface is another popular method, and surface chemical reactions have also been developed by several researchers. Several important examples of physical and chemical modifications of membrane surfaces for low-protein-binding are summarized in this article.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• 제3권1호
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• pp.35-49
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• 2012

In membrane processes, various agents are used to enhance, protect, and recover membrane performance. Applying these agents in membrane modification could potentially be considered as a simple method to improve membrane performance without additional process. Citric acid (CI) and sodium bisulfite (SB) are two chemicals that are widely used in membrane feed water pretreatment and cleaning processes. In this work, preadsorptions of CI and SB were developed as simple methods for polysulfone ultrafiltration membrane modification. It was found that hydrogen bonding and Van Der Waals attraction could be responsible for the adsorptions of CI and SB onto membranes, respectively. After modification with CI or SB, the membrane surfaces became more hydrophilic. Membrane permeability improved when modified by SB while decreased a little when modified by CI. The modified membranes had an increase in PEG and BSA rejections and better antifouling properties with higher flux recovery ratios during filtration of a complex pharmaceutical wastewater. Moreover, membrane chlorine tolerance was elevated after modification with either agent, as shown by the mechanical property measurements.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• 제15권1호
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• pp.21-29
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• 2024

1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecytriethoxysilane (C₁₆H₁₉F₁₇O₃Si) be successfully applied to the hydrophobic modification of Al₂O₃ tubular ceramic membrane. Taking the concentration of modification solution, modification time, and modification temperature as factors, orthogonal experiments were designed to study the hydrophobicity of the composite membranes. The experiments showed that the modification time had the greatest impact on the experimental results, followed by the modification temperature, and the modification solution concentration had the smallest impact. Concentration of the modified solution 0.012 mol·L^-1, modification temperature 30 ℃ and modification time 24 h were considered optimal hydrophobic modification conditions. And the pure water flux reached 274.80 kg·m^-2·h^-1 at 0.1MPa before hydrophobic modification, whereas the modified membrane completely blocked liquid water permeation at pressures less than 0.1MPa. Air gap membrane distillation experiments were conducted for NaCl (2wt%) solution, and the maximum flux reached 4.20 kg·m^-2·h^-1, while the retention rate remained above 99.8%. Given the scarcity of freshwater resources in coastal areas, the article proposed a system for seawater desalination using air conditioning waste heat, and conducted preliminary research on its freshwater production performance using Aspen Plus. Finally, the proposed system achieved a freshwater production capacity of 0.61 kg·m^-2·h^-1.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• 제6권4호
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• pp.323-337
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• 2015

Membrane Fouling was considered as major drawback in various industrial applications. Thus, this paper reviews the surface modification of polyethersulfone (PES) membranes for antifouling performance. Various modification techniques clearly indicate that hydrophilicity has to improve on the PES membrane surface. Moreover, the mechanism of fouling reduction with corresponds to various modification methods is widely discussed. Incorporation of hydrophilic functional groups on PES membrane surface enhances the surface free energy thereby which reduces the fouling. Characterization techniques adopted for the surface modified membranes was also discussed. These studies might be useful for the other researchers to utilize the modification technique for the applications of waste water treatment, chemical process industry and food industry.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• 제4권2호
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• pp.109-126
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• 2013

Surface modification by low-pressure ammonia ($NH_3$) plasma on commercial thin-film composite (TFC) membranes was investigated in this study. Surface hydrophilicity, total surface free energy, ion exchange capacity (IEC) and zeta (${\zeta}$)-potentials were determined for the TFC membranes. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of the membrane surface chemistry were conducted by attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR FT-IR) spectroscopy. Results showed that the $NH_3$ plasma treatment increased the surface hydrophilicity, in particular at a plasma treatment time longer than 5 min at 50 W of plasma power. Total surface free energy was influenced by the basic polar components introduced by the $NH_3$ plasma, and isoelectric point (IEP) was shifted to higher pH region after the modification. A ten (10) min $NH_3$ plasma treatment at 90 W was found to be adequate for the TFC membrane modification, resulting in a membrane with better characteristics than the TFC membranes without the modification for water treatment. The thin-film chemistry (i.e., fully-aromatic and semi-aromatic nature in the interfacial polymerization) influenced the initial stage of plasma modification.

• Korean Membrane Journal
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• 제7권1호
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• pp.19-27
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• 2005

PP hollow fiber membrane was hydrophilized by EVOH dip coating followed by low temperature plasma treatment and UV irradiation. EVOH coating attained high water flux without any prewetting but its stability did not guaranteed at high water permeation rate. At high water permeation rate, water flux declined gradually due to swelling and delamination of the EVOH coating layer causing pore blocking effect. However, plasma treatment reduces the swelling, which suppress delamination of the EVOH coating layer from PP support result in relieving the flux decline. Also, UV irradiation helped the crosslinking of the EVOH coating layer to enhance the performance at low water permeation rate. FT-IR and ESCA analyses reveal that EVOH dip coating performed homogeneously through not only membrane surface but also matrix. Thermogram of EVOH film modified plasma treatment and W irradiation show that crosslinking density of EVOH layer increased. Chemical modification by plasma treatment and UV irradiation stabilized the hydrophilic coating layer to increase the critical flux of the submerged membrane.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• 제1권1호
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• pp.83-92
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• 2010

To improve the antifouling characteristics of polypropylene hollow fiber microporous membranes in a submerged membrane-bioreactor for wastewater treatment, the surface-modification was conducted by Ar plasma treatment. Surface hydrophilicity was assessed by water contact angle measurements. The advancing and receding water contact angles reduced after the surface modification, and hysteresis between the advancing and receding water contact angles was enlarged after Ar plasma treatment due to the increased surface roughness after surface plasma treatment. After continuous operation in a submerged membrane-bioreactor for about 55 h, the flux recovery after water cleaning and the flux ratio after fouling were improved by 20.0 and 143.0%, while the reduction of flux was reduced by 28.6% for the surface modified membrane after 1 min Ar plasma treatment, compared to those of the unmodified membrane. Morphological observations showed that the mean membrane pore size after Ar plasma treatment reduced as a result of the deposition of the etched species; after it was used in the submerged membrane-bioreactor, the further decline of the mean membrane pore size was caused by the deposition of foulants. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and infrared spectroscopy confirmed that proteins and polysaccharide-like substances were the main foulants in the precipitate.

• 멤브레인
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• 제28권1호
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• pp.1-20
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• 2018

고분자 재질의 압력 구동 기반 분리막을 이용하여 담수를 얻기 위한 공정은 에너지 효율이 높은 방법으로 알려져 있다. 하지만, 분리막 운전 중에 투과성능을 떨어트리는 막 오염 문제가 발생 하기에, 막 오염을 제어하는 것은 분리막 공정의 에너지 효율을 높이는 데 필수적이다. 막 오염은 일반적으로 분리막 표면과 막 오염 물질과의 상호 작용으로 발생하며, 분리막 표면을 개질하는 방법은 막 오염을 방지하여 높은 투과 특성을 지속적으로 유지하게 할 수 있는 좋은 방법 중 하나이다. 본 논문에서는 압력 구동 기반 분리막인 미세여과, 한외여과, 나노여과 및 역삼투용 분리막의 표면을 개질할 수 있는 방법을 정리하였다. 구체적인 개질 방법으로는 개질 물질의 흡착 및 코팅 방법인 물리적 방법과 가교제 이용, 자유 라디칼 중합(FRP), 원자 이동 라디칼 중합(ATRP), 플라즈마 및 자외선 조사 기반 중합인 화학적 방법으로 나누어 정리하였다. 본 총설에서는 최근 논문상에 보고되고 있는 물리화학적 표면 개질 방법을 소개하고, 막 오염 저항성을 높일 수 있는 분리막 제조를 위한 연구방향을 제시하고자 한다.

• 멤브레인
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• 제33권1호
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• pp.1-12
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• 2023

본 총설은 소수성 불소수지계 분리막의 표면 개질에 대한 개론으로 다양한 표면 개질 방법 및 그 연구 결과를 중점적으로 서술하였다. PTFE로 대표되는 불소수지계 고분자 분리막은 막 증류, 유수 분리, 기체 분리를 포함한 다양한 막 분리 공정에서 사용되어왔다. PTFE 막은 내화학성, 내열성, 높은 기계적 강도와 같은 뛰어난 물성에도 불구하고 소수성 표면 특성으로 인해 기술 적용의 확장에 제한적이다. 친수성 향상을 위해 습식 화학법, 친수성 고분자 코팅, 플라즈마 처리, 조사, 원자층 증착과 같은 다양한 PTFE 표면 개질 방법을 이용하며 이를 통해 불소수지계 분리막의 응용분야가 확장될 수 있다.

• 한국막학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국막학회 1998년도 춘계 총회 및 학술발표회
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• pp.97-98
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• 1998

1. Introduction : Polypropylene(PP) membrane is widely used in the field of microfiltration and ultrafiltration. However, the hydrophobicity of PP causes the adsorption of hydrophobic and amphoteric solutes in the feed. Surface modification techniques of membrane through the treatment of hydrophilizing agents, coating of hydrophilic compounds, UV, plasma and high energy irradiation, etc. can have a great effect on propensities to prevent the protein from staining membranes. Among them, the modification to hydophilize membrane surface using UV is very simple and effective. Recently many studies for more effective surface modification have been conducted. Iwata et al. prepared membranes by grafting polyethylene glycol diacrylate macromer(PEGDA) onto polysulfone with plasma using a glow discharge reactor which prevent the oil from staining the membrane. The primary mechanism contributing to the membranes is preventing the oil from directly contacting the surface of the membrane as the PEGDA chains dissolved into emulsion. To evaluate their feasibility for use as a anti-fouling separation membrane, we prepared hydrophilic membranes by UV irradiation method and investigated their characteristics.