(607b) Synthesis and Performance Characterization of Zwitterionic Poly(arylene ether sulfone) Copolymers for Fouling-Resistant Desalination Membranes

Access to clean water resources has accelerated research in the direction of membrane-based separation processes that are often perplexed by acute and pervasive membrane fouling. The properties of the polymeric membranes deployed in these operations play a critical role in understanding the fouling and anti-fouling behavior. Bulk modification with zwitterions to polymeric backbone has been identified as an effective strategy to resist membrane fouling due to their impressive hydrophilicity and antifouling properties. This work demonstrates a reaction pathway to prepare an amphiphilic copolymer poly(arylene ether sulfone-co-sulfobetaine arylene ether sulfone) (PAES-co-SBAES) with controllable charge densities of sulfobetaine zwitterion and linear high molecular weights. The PAES-co-SBAES copolymers were then fabricated into dense membranes for their performance characterization with zeta potential, water contact angle and pervaporation measurements. The overarching goal of this work is to design and optimize the PAES-co-SBAES copolymer model and investigate its structure-property-performance relationship for a real multicomponent fouling and scaling environment.