Surface Modification of Membranes for Fouling Reduction

Despite great effort that has been made to reduce and understand fouling, this phenomenon is still a major problem in membrane applications. Numerous methods, both from a chemical and engineering point of view, have been introduced to overcome this problem. In this contribution, we report on the modification of membranes with polyelectrolytes and polyelectrolyte multilayers utilizing two of the mentioned strategies. The effect of surface modification on the fouling behavior as well as on the critical flux will be discussed on two examples, microfiltration membranes and RO membranes