New insight into the adsorption behaviour of effluent organic matter on organic–inorganic ultrafiltration membranes: a combined QCM-D and AFM study

Adsorption of organic matter on membranes plays a major role in determining the fouling behaviour of membranes. This study investigated effluent organic matter (EfOM) adsorption behaviour onto poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) membrane blended with SiO(2) nanoparticles using quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The QCM-D results suggested that low adsorption of EfOM and an EfOM layer with a non-rigid and open structure was formed on SiO(2)-terminated membrane surfaces. Conformational assessment showed that EfOM undergoes adsorption via two steps: (i) in the initial stage, a rapid adsorption of EfOM accumulated onto the membrane; (ii) the change in dissipation was still occurring when the adsorption frequency reached balance, and the layer tended towards a more rearranged or organized secondary structure upon adsorption onto the more hydrophilic surface. For the AFM force test, when a self-made EfOM-coated probe approached the membrane, a ‘jump-in’ was observed for the hydrophobic membrane after repulsion at a small distance, while only repulsive forces were observed for PVDF/SiO(2) membranes. This study demonstrated that the PVDF/SiO(2) membrane changed the entire filtration process, forming a ‘soft’ open conformation in the foulant layer.