SusChEM: High Throughput Screening of Anti-fouling and Anti-bacterial Coating Films

CBET-1337065Eric M.V.加州大学洛杉矶分校霍克分校围绕全球淡水供应减少的健康问题是众所周知的，新的生态、农业和地缘政治影响现在正在被认识到。甚至有人预测，到 2025 年，美国等发达国家将面临“水资源紧张”。目前，聚合物膜技术是从海水或废水等非传统来源生产清洁饮用水的最先进方法。给水通过高选择性塑料膜泵送，污染物被截留：然而，由于被截留的污染物在膜表面和/或膜孔内积聚，膜很快就会结垢。由于频繁的渗透物反冲洗和定期使用会降解膜聚合物的刺激性化学品进行清洁，导致膜过早更换，因此会损失大量的能源和水。该项目的目的是开发防垢膜，通过用排斥或钝化污垢材料的化合物来修饰膜的表面，以减少与水处理膜相关的不断增加的能源需求和运营成本。过去已经证明了膜表面修饰，但大多数都需要特殊的反应条件、较长的反应时间和/或昂贵的试剂，限制了它们的商业应用。该项目团队最近开发了一种新型表面改性化学物质，可将抗粘附和抗菌化合物共价连接到聚合物膜的表面。该反应在室温和大气压下在水中进行，同时使用廉价的试剂和环境友好的加工条件。初步结果表明，商业 RO 和 UF 膜很容易被多种化合物改性。这些膜保留了其基本的分离性能特征，但表面发生了显着改变。结果是，通过改变改性化学和条件，我们可以调节细菌对反渗透膜的粘附。为了确定最佳的防污化合物特性，将合成几种化合物，并使用项目团队先前开发的高通量筛选方案筛选其防污行为。这些化合物具有不同的静电荷、分子量和抗菌功能。商用膜将采用新的表面化学物质进行改性，并对其最终的生产率、污染物去除率、改进的防污性和易于清洁性进行评估。该项目将开发用于大规模水处理的新型防污膜材料。通过修改具有不同特性的膜表面，将确定最佳表面特性，以帮助了解水环境中表面污染和生物膜形成的机制。该项目的成果将提供一种大规模生产防污膜的有效方法，以减少将海水或废水转化为清洁可用水的能源需求和运营成本。

CBET-1337065Eric M.V. HoekUniversity of California, Los AngelesThe health issues surrounding the diminishing supply of global freshwater are well known and new ecological, agricultural, and geopolitical implications are now being recognized. It is even predicted that developed nations such as the United States will be considered "water-stressed" by 2025. Currently, polymeric membrane technology is the state-of-the-art method to produce clean, potable water from unconventional sources such as seawater or wastewater. The feed water is pumped through the highly selective plastic films and pollutants are rejected: however, the membranes quickly foul due to accumulation of rejected pollutants on the membrane surface and/or within membrane pores. A significant amount of energy and water are lost to membrane cleaning with frequent permeate backwashes and periodically cleaning with harsh chemicals that degrade membrane polymers resulting in premature replacement. The aim of this project is to develop fouling-resistant membranes to reduce increased energy demand and operating costs associated with water treatment membranes by modifying the surface of the membranes with compounds that repel or deactivate fouling materials. Membrane surface modifications have been demonstrated in past, but most have required exotic reaction conditions, long reaction times, and/or expensive reagents that limited their commercial application. The project team recently developed a novel surface modification chemistry that covalently attaches anti-adhesion and anti-bacterial compounds to the surface of polymeric membranes. The reaction is performed in water at room temperature and atmospheric pressure while using inexpensive reagents and environmentally benign processing conditions. Preliminary results demonstrate that commercial RO and UF membranes are easily modified by a variety of compounds. The membranes retain their basic separation performance characteristics, but have dramatically altered surfaces. The result is that by altering modification chemistry and conditions we can modulate bacterial adhesion to RO membranes. To determine optimal anti-fouling compound properties, several compounds will be synthesized and screened for anti-fouling behavior using High-Throughput Screening protocols previously developed by the project team. The compounds will have varying electrostatic charge, molecular weight, and anti-bacterial functionality. Commercial membranes will be modified with the new surface chemistries and evaluated for their resultant productivity, pollutant rejection, improved fouling-resistance and ease of cleaning. This project will develop new anti-fouling membranes materials for large-scale water treatment. By modifying membrane surfaces with different properties, optimal surface properties will be ascertained to help understand the mechanisms that contribute to surface fouling and biofilm formation in aqueous environments. The result of this project will provide an effective way to produce anti-fouling membranes on a large scale to reduce energy demand and operating costs associated with converting seawater or wastewater into clean, usable water.