Thermally stable core-shell star-shaped block copolymers for antifouling enhancement of water purification membranes

Development of Antibacterial and Antifouling Innovative and Eco-Sustainable Sol–Gel Based Materials: From Marine Areas Protection to Healthcare Applications

“…Different techniques were used for the preparation of zwitterionic polymeric coatings, such as self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) [ 79 ], layer-by-layer deposition methods (LBL) [ 86 ], solution polymerization, solvent evaporation, and atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) [ 78 ]. A simple approach to incorporate zwitterionic copolymers in polymer membranes, consisting of electrostatic adsorption, performed a dip-coating method.…”

“…These coated membranes, by a self-assembly process, were used for filtration of synthetic oil-water emulsions. In particular, the bilayer-coated membrane showed an 80% and 90% retention capacity for nano and micron size oil emulsion, respectively [ 79 ]. An alternative to zwitterionic polymer coatings is represented by polydopamine (PDA) based coatings that are becoming increasingly popular for the surface modification of different substrates due to their versatility, adhesion capacity, and reactivity due to the quinone group on PDA that can be easily functionalized with different molecules.…”

Highly Efficient Antifouling Coating of Star-Shaped Block Copolymers with Variable Sizes of Hydrophobic Cores and Charge-Neutral Hydrophilic Arms

“…12−16 Membrane surface mod-ification is the viable process for the enhancement of antifouling property since it can be applied to existing highly optimized and subtly devised commercially available membranes. 17,18 In the quest of the development of membrane surface modification techniques, a host of physical and chemical modification processes have been explored, out of which physical modification, especially preadsorption of a hydrophilic material on the membrane surface, is found to be more efficient and technologically and/or economically feasible. 18−21 Chemical grafting of hydrophilic polymers suffers from many inherent limitations, including incomplete surface coverage, limited compatibility of the membrane with many chemicals used in grafting reactions, requirements for expensive and/or destructive membrane preactivation process, and alteration of membrane permeation properties if the chemical grafting reactions are not properly controlled.…”

“…18−21 Chemical grafting of hydrophilic polymers suffers from many inherent limitations, including incomplete surface coverage, limited compatibility of the membrane with many chemicals used in grafting reactions, requirements for expensive and/or destructive membrane preactivation process, and alteration of membrane permeation properties if the chemical grafting reactions are not properly controlled. 17 In contrast, physical coating processes offer superior control over membranes' antifouling properties without adversely affecting the permeation properties if the coating materials are designed appropriately. 17,18 Commonly used coating materials include linear polyelectrolytes; 22−26 however, numerous limitations of linear polyelectrolyte-based coatings 17 have led to the exploration of the various smart architectural designs of coating materials that include hyperbranched polyelectrolytes, 27,28 charged inorganic nanomaterials, 29−33 carbon nanotubes, 34 and graphene oxides.…”

“…17 In contrast, physical coating processes offer superior control over membranes' antifouling properties without adversely affecting the permeation properties if the coating materials are designed appropriately. 17,18 Commonly used coating materials include linear polyelectrolytes; 22−26 however, numerous limitations of linear polyelectrolyte-based coatings 17 have led to the exploration of the various smart architectural designs of coating materials that include hyperbranched polyelectrolytes, 27,28 charged inorganic nanomaterials, 29−33 carbon nanotubes, 34 and graphene oxides. 35−37 Despite achieving promising results in terms of fouling resistance, these developments could not overcome many of the limitations related to the stability of the coatings, necessities for membrane preactivations, and increase in the membrane surface roughness via agglomeration of coating materials.…”