Fouling Resistant Coating Materials for Oil/water Separation

Potential fouling reducing coating materials were synthesized via free-radical photopolymerization of aqueous solutions of poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) and other related classed of hydrogel polymers. Crosslinked PEGDA (XLPEGDA) exhibited high water permeability and good fouling resistance to oil/water mixtures. Water permeability increased strongly with increasing the water content in the prepolymerization water mixture, going from 10 to 150 L μm/(m2 h bar) as prepolymerization water content increased from 60 to 80 wt.%. However, molecular weight cutoff decreased as water content increased. These materials were applied to polysulfone (PSF) UF membranes to form coatings on the surface of the PSF membranes. Oil/water crossflow filtration experiments showed that the coated PSF membranes had water flux values 400% higher than that of an uncoated PSF membrane after 24 hours of operation, and the coated membranes had higher organic rejection than the uncoated membranes. Results for other polymer systems and their use as fouling-reducing coatings will also be presented.