Improvement of the antifouling characteristics in a bioreactor of polypropylene microporous membrane by the adsorption of Tween 20

• Published in: 环境科学学报（英文版） Vol. 19; no. 12; pp. 1461 - 1465
• Main Authors: XIE Ya-jie, YU Hai-yin, WANG Shu-yuan, XU Zhi-kang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: College of Biological and Chemical Engineering, Jiaxing University, Jiaxing 314001, China%Institute of Polymer Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China 2007
• Subjects: Tween 20; surface modification; FE-SEM; MBR; polypropylene microporous membrane
• ISSN: 1001-0742; 1878-7320
• DOI: 10.3321/j.issn:1001-0742.2007.12.009

X7; Surface modification by physical adsorption of Tween 20 was accomplished on polypropylene microporous membranes (PPMMs). Attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR/FT-IR) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) were used to characterize the chemical and morphological changes on the membrane surfaces. Water contact angles and relative pure water fluxes were measured. The data showed that the hydrophilic performance for the modified membranes increased with the increase in the adsorption amount of Tween 20 onto the surface or into the pores of polypropylene microporous membranes. To test the antifouling property of the membranes by the adsorption of Tween 20 in a membrane bioreactor (MBR), filtration for active sludge was performed using synthetic wastewater. With the help of the data of water fluxes and the FE-SEM photos of the modified PPMMs before or after operating in a MBR for about 12 d, the PPMMs with monolayer adsorption of Tween 20 showed higher remained flux and stronger antifouling ability than unmodified membrane and other modification membranes studied.