Facile engineering of PES ultrafiltration membranes using polyoxometalates for enhanced filtration and antifouling performance

The pursuit of augmented membrane separation performance is mainly proceeded by breaking the permeability-selectivity trade-off and ameliorating the membrane fouling propensity. Here, we report the usage of phosphomolybdic acid (PMo12) as a functional additive to fabricate poly (ether sulfone) (PES) based composite ultrafiltration membranes via a non-solvent induced phase separation process. In contrast to the control PES membrane, the introduction of PMo12 endowed the composite membranes with increased surface pore density, porosity and selective layer thickness as well as the enhanced hydrophilicity and charge property through altering the phase inversion rate, thereby resulting in a significantly increased filtration performance. Specifically, the optimized composite membrane presented a water flux of 572.67 ± 21.73 L·m−2·h−1 and a bovine serum albumin rejection of 99.31 ± 0.22 %, which are ca. 340 % and 0.7 % higher than those of the control PES membrane, respectively. Importantly, the composite membrane also displayed enhanced anti-organic and anti-biofouling properties with the assistance of the introduced PMo12. This work provides an efficient pathway to simultaneously enhance the filtration and antifouling performance toward the further advancement of UF membrane for water purification.