Biofouling decreases efficiency of membrane-based water filtration, like desalination, because fouling decreases flow rates. Understanding biofouling mechanism is crucial for increased implementation of desalination though few techniques for studying this exist. Flux experiments are combined with fluorescent membrane images to determine the biofouling mechanism of bovine serum albumin (BSA), a common model protein, with two mixed cellulose ester membranes. Samples containing 1% to 12% fluorescently tagged BSA (remaining protein unlabeled) are tested to determine the ideal amount of labeled protein. Due to large standard deviation in the fouling decays, the relative flux decays are fit for statistical analysis. No correlation between the decay and amount of labeled protein is found, suggesting the dye has little impact on the fouling. A 2.5% or 5% labeled protein sample is optimal to generate images and visualize the beginning of cake formation (blockage of membrane pores). By fitting the flux data to biofouling mechanism equations, it is concluded BSA deposits in the membrane pores eventually leading to cake formation. These results are corroborated using scanning electron microscopy images. Combining flux and fluorescence microscopy allows for further insight into biofouling mechanism and can be applied to other biological molecules to improve filtration techniques.
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