Alternative fouling analysis of PVDF UF membrane for surface water treatment: The credibility of silver nanoparticles

The prevalence drawback of membrane technology applications is rapid flux declines due to fouling. Membrane fouling analysis is vital to explicitly understand fouling occurrences. Alternatively, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) incorporated in PVDF membranes are utilized for Raman spectroscopy (SERS) as an unconventional approach of built-in surface that enhances substrate. The thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) has been employed to quantify foulant as an approach to evaluate the performance of AgNPs for fouling mitigation during surface water filtration. In this study, two types of AgNPs, namely AgNPs-1 and AgNPs-2, were respectively incorporated in the PVDF ultrafiltration (UF) membrane. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM), flux decay rate (FDR), and flux recovery ratio (FRR) analyses of clean and fouled membranes have implied membrane fouling phenomena. Small significant peaks representing biofoulant presence were obtained from normal Raman while total foulant weight indicated reductions of 82.69% and 75.86% with the presence of AgNPs-1 and AgNPs-2, respectively. Hence, the unconventional approach in fouling analysis for AgNPs in PVDF membrane has potentially been earmarked for surface enhancement in normal Raman analysis while foulant quantification provided a profound understanding of fouling occurrences on the membrane which contribute to the development of the fouling mitigation approach. [Display omitted] •PVDF membranes were incorporated with two types of AgNPs for facile fouling mitigation approach.•Modified PVDF membranes have reduced fouling occurrence with alternative fouling analyses discussed.•The potentialities of AgNPs as colloids for SERS application to examine biofouling were identified.•Fouling phenomena were quantitatively analyzed signifying the credibility of the AgNPs.