Regenerable anti-fouling active PTFE membrane with thermo-reversible 'peel-and-stick' hydrophilic layer

We develop a regenerable anti fouling membrane via the formation of a dynamic peel-and-stick of hydrophilic poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) layer onto the surface of a poly(tetratluoroethylene) (PTFE) membrane, using thermo-responsive reversible covalent bonding. In order to attach a peelable-and-stickable hydrophlilic layer onto a membrane surface, a maleimide end-modified PEG layer is coupled with a furan-modified PTFE membrane by reversible Diels-Alder (DA) cycloaddition reaction. The combined results of attenuated total reflection Fourier-transform infrared (ATR FT-IR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and held-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) measurements clearly reveal that the maleimide end-modified PEG is successfully coupled with the furan-modified PIPE membrane surface by DA reaction. In addition, the hydrophilic PEG layer is readily and repeatedly reformed on the membrane surface by a thermally driven dynamic peel-and-stick process. The PEG-coupled PIPE membrane shows effective anti-fouling performance against a highly concentrated silica colloidal aqueous solution. In particular, the anti-fouling property is remarkably recovered after regeneration of the hydrophilic layer through the peel-and-stick process. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.