Amphiphilic Grafted Polymers Based on Citric Acid and Aniline Used to Enhance the Antifouling and Permeability Properties of PES Membranes

Water treatment technology based on ultrafiltration (UF) faces the problem of severe membrane fouling due to its inherent hydrophobicity. The use of amphiphilic polymers that possess both hydrophobic and hydrophilic chain segments can be advantageous for the hydrophilic modification of UF membranes due to their excellent combination in the membrane matrix. In the present study, we examined a novel amphiphilic CA–g–AN material, constructed by grafting citric acid (CA) to aniline (AN), as a modified material to improve the hydrophilicity of a PES membrane. This material was more compatible with the polymer membrane matrix than a pure hydrophilic modified material. The polyethersulfone (PES) membranes modified by amphiphilic CA–g–AN demonstrated a higher water flux (290.13 L·m(−2)·h(−1)), which was more than eight times higher than that of the pure PES membrane. Furthermore, the flux recovery ratio (FRR) of the modified membrane could reach 83.24% and the value of the water contact angle (WCA) was 76.43°, demonstrating the enhanced hydrophilicity and antifouling ability of the modified membranes. With this study, we aimed to develop a new amphiphilic polymer to improve the antifouling property and permeability of polymer-based UF membranes to remove organic pollutants from water.