Mitigation of irreversible membrane fouling by CNT-PVDF electrically conductive ultrafiltration membranes

Understanding the irreversible fouling mitigation performance of conductive membranes is crucial for engineering applications. In this study, the effectiveness of conductive membranes in mitigating the irreversible fouling caused by typical membrane pollutants and actual surface water was investigated. The results indicated that the conductive membranes had the greatest mitigating effect on irreversible fouling caused by humic substances and the weakest mitigating effect on that caused by proteins. The growth rates of irreversible membrane fouling over five-cycle filtration with conductive membranes were reduced by 58.6 % (humic acid), 42.3 % (sodium alginate), and 30 % (bovine serum albumin) compared to those without power. Moreover, conductive membranes exhibited a commendable irreversible fouling mitigation effect when treating real surface water. The irreversible fouling growth rate and resistance decreased by 41.6 % and 49.9 %, respectively, compared to those without power. Although the increase in the ionic strength of the feed water weakened the effectiveness of the conductive membranes in irreversible fouling mitigation, it was still significantly better than that without power.