Biogenic silver nanoparticles-modified forward osmosis membranes with mitigated internal concentration polarization and enhanced antibacterial properties

Wu, Xing; Fang, Fang; Zhang, Bifeng; Wu, Jun Jie; Zhang, Kaisong

doi:10.1038/s41545-022-00190-1

Biogenic silver nanoparticles-modified forward osmosis membranes with mitigated internal concentration polarization and enhanced antibacterial properties

Wu, Xing; Fang, Fang; Zhang, Bifeng; Wu, Jun Jie; Zhang, Kaisong

Authors

Junjie Wu junjie.wu@durham.ac.uk
Honorary Professor

Fang Fang

Bifeng Zhang

Junjie Wu junjie.wu@durham.ac.uk
Honorary Professor

Kaisong Zhang

Abstract

Thin-film composite forward osmosis (TFC-FO) membranes show the potential to be applied in water treatment applications. However, the TFC-FO membrane performance was limited by internal concentration polarization (ICP) and membrane fouling. In this study, a well-functioning TFC-FO membrane was produced by embedding biogenic silver nanoparticles (BioAg) into the polysulfone (PSf) substrate of a FO membrane. Effects of BioAg on membrane structure, filtration performance, antifouling, and antibacterial properties of the as-prepared FO membranes were examined. Results indicated that BioAg-modified FO membranes achieved improved surface hydrophilicity, higher porosity, and mitigated ICP, resulting in 2.5–4.4 times higher water flux than the pristine FO membranes. The BioAg-modified FO membrane also showed significantly improved antifouling and antibacterial ability. Moreover, the release velocity of silver nanoparticles in FO membranes was significantly slowed down by the construction of the polyamide layer. After 30 days of immersion in an aqueous solution, 96.5% of silver was retained in the optimized BioAg-modified FO membrane. The study offers an effective approach to simultaneously mitigate ICP and enhance the antifouling property of TFC-FO membranes through substrate modification.

Citation

Wu, X., Fang, F., Zhang, B., Wu, J. J., & Zhang, K. (2022). Biogenic silver nanoparticles-modified forward osmosis membranes with mitigated internal concentration polarization and enhanced antibacterial properties. npj Clean Water, 5, Article 41. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41545-022-00190-1

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Aug 22, 2022
Online Publication Date	Sep 9, 2022
Publication Date	2022
Deposit Date	Nov 17, 2022
Publicly Available Date	Mar 22, 2023
Journal	npj Clean Water
Electronic ISSN	2059-7037
Publisher	Nature Research
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	5
Article Number	41
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41545-022-00190-1
Public URL	https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1186038

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