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.