The synergistic actions of copper/l-glutamine co-grafting in improving anti-biofouling and desalination performances of reverse osmosis thin film composite membrane

There have been ongoing efforts to improve membrane surfaces by adding specific functional groups through physical or chemical approaches to minimize fouling propensity. This study introduces a facile grafting and deposition approach to enhance the performance of thin film composite polyamide reverse osmosis (TFC PA RO) membrane. The synergistic effects of l-glutamine and Cu nanoparticles in altering the physico-chemical properties and improving desalination performances were investigated. The l-glutamine improved the hydrophilicity of membrane, while Cu NPs offered significant antibacterial characteristics to improve the functionality of membrane. The findings revealed that TFC-l-glutamine/Cu3 showed optimum performance with water flux of 16.5 L.m−2 h−1 and salt rejection of 96.8 % at an operating pressure of 1.5 MPa. The TFC-l-glutamine/Cu3 membrane exhibited an absence of dense colonies against both S. aureus and E. coli, on account of the antibacterial effectiveness of Cu NPs. The S. aureus- and E. coli-fouled TFC-l-glutamine/Cu3 membrane showed the lowest flux decline of 20 % and 25 % for, respectively. The TFC-l-glutamine/Cu3 membrane exhibited promising antifouling performance, with a flux recovery ratio (FRR) of 95.2 % for bovine serum albumin (BSA) foulants. The TFC-l-glutamine/Cu3 membrane exhibited a low copper leaching of ≤3 %, suggesting its high stability. The modification strategy demonstrated in this study provides a feasible solution to simultaneously address multiple issues of TFC RO membranes, which potentially leading to more efficient desalination. [Display omitted] •l-glutamine and Cu NPs are co-grafted on the PA layer in a single-step modification.•The roles of l-glutamine and Cu NPs in enhancing flux and salt rejection are discussed.•Fouling resistance towards bio and organic foulants are improved.•The interaction between the modified membrane surface and foulants is elucidated.