(569f) Nanostructured Layer-By-Layer (LbL) Surface Modification of Nanofiltration Membranes for Effluent Treatment

Layer-by-layer (LbL) is a versatile surface modification tool, which has found applications in diverse fields like sensors, gas barrier films and drug delivery. This tool has also been extensively employed to improve the performances of existing membranes; yet the application of such membranes has been primarily limited to ion removal. Moreover, these surface-modified membranes have not been evaluated in the presence of real and complex feed streams. This talk will highlight our work focused on developing LbL-modified nanofiltration membranes for real effluents. By careful tuning of process parameters, such membranes showed impressive performances in terms of flux, rejection and very importantly in terms of fouling resistance. The potential to further improve the anti-fouling properties via introduction of nanomaterials (e.g. clay nanoplatelets) will also be briefly discussed. The results shown by LbL-modified membranes for such complex feed streams make them suitable for wastewater reuse and reclamation purposes.