LAUSR

Abstract Catechol functionalized comb-shaped poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone) (CA-PLL-PVP) copolymer could be easily coated on the surface of a microporous polypropylene membrane for microfiltration. The copolymer (CA-PLL-PVP) was synthesized in one-pot by grafting PVP with terminal carboxyl moiety (PVP-COOH) and caffeic acid to the e-polylysine (PLL) backbone via carbodiimide/N-hydroxysuccinimide activated coupling. The coating significantly enhanced the water wettability of polypropylene (PP) membrane with contact angles dropped from 110° to near 0°. Excellent antifouling performance was achieved in the microfiltration using bovine serum albumin (BSA) and sodium alginate (SA) as model foulants that ~65% relative flux could be maintained by the coated membrane while only 35% for the pristine PP membrane. With simple physical cleaning the fouled membrane, approximately 90% of flux recovery was achieved for the coated membrane. In contrast, only less than 10% flux recovery was observed for the pristine membrane after 3 sequential cycles of microfiltration. PVP securely coated on PP microporous membrane via the conjugated catechol not only significantly reduced the fouling caused by BSA-SA mixture microfiltration but also facilitated the foulants on fouled membrane to be easily removed to recover the declined flux.