Enhanced anti-fouling property of poly(vinyl chloride) membrane by blending poly(N-acryloylmorpholine)-grafted ZrO2 nanoparticle

In this work, poly(N-acryloylmorpholine)-grafted ZrO 2 nanoparticles (ZrO 2 -g-PACMO) were directly blended with poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) to prepare a hybrid membrane via the phase inversion method. In addition, the effects of ZrO 2 -g-PACMO and ZrO 2 nanoparticles on the structure and performance of resultant PVC membranes were comparatively investigated. The results indicated that the PVC/ZrO 2 -g-PACMO membrane exhibited a large macroviod of cross-section and a rough membrane surface. During membrane formation, the hydrophilic PACMO chains were preferably enriched onto the membrane surface, leading to the enhancement of surface hydrophilicity and the reduction of adhesion force between protein and membrane surface. The amount of adsorbed bovine serum albumin (BSA) on the poly(vinylidene fluoride)/ZrO 2 -g-PACMO decreases about 73% and 48% respectively, compared with original PVC and PVC/ZrO 2 membranes. Cycle filtration of pure water and BSA solution (0.5 g/L) confirmed that the total and irreversible membrane fouling were remarkably suppressed after incorporating ZrO 2 -g-PACMO into PVC membrane. Although the original ZrO 2 nanoparticle was also found to improve the protein fouling resistance of PVC membrane, there was a fatal limitation that the original ZrO 2 exhibited an agglomeration tendency during the membrane formation. The outcomes of the present work demonstrate that the synthesized ZrO 2 -g-PACMO nanoparticles have the potential for the design and preparation of anti-fouling PVC membrane.