FTIR mapping as a simple and powerful approach to study membrane coating and fouling

Lucia Benavente (1) , Clémence Coetsier (1) , Antoine Venault (2) , Yung Chang (2) , Christel Causserand (1) , Patrice Bacchin (1) , Pierre Aimar (1)

1 LGC - Laboratoire de Génie Chimique
2 Chung Yuan Christian University

The purpose of this work is to apply FTIR mapping to the analysis of the coating and fouling behaviour of PVDF membranes coated with two different types of PS-PEGMA copolymers – diblock and random. The coating conditions involve the variation of coating solution concentration and of coating time. We have carried out adsorption experiments with BSA as the foulant, and also filtration experiments. The analysis of the results is mainly performed by image analysis of the mapped surfaces with two approaches: taking the average grey value/peak height of the whole surface for the coating and foulant signals, and by defining coating/fouling levels as an initial approach to analyse heterogeneity. Our results show that there is an heterogeneous distribution of the coating and fouling layers on the membrane surface at a millimetre scale. Moreover, the diblock copolymer has a slightly better anti-adsorption performance than the random one. Coating conditions should be carefully chosen and conclusions regarding the anti-fouling properties of the membranes should be drawn by taking into account both adsorption and filtration tests. All in all, FTIR mapping is a technique that should be taken into account for the study of fouling phenomena.

Mots clés: Membrane modification; FTIR; Coating -Fouling; Heterogeneity

Domaines: Génie chimique; Génie des procédés

Lucia Benavente, Clémence Coetsier, Antoine Venault, Yung Chang, Christel Causserand, et al.. FTIR mapping as a simple and powerful approach to study membrane coating and fouling. Journal of Membrane Science, 2016, vol. 520, pp. 477-489. ⟨10.1016/j.memsci.2016.07.061⟩. ⟨hal-01417896⟩