Fouling tendency of PDA/PVP surface modified PP membrane

•Polypropylene membrane was modified by air assisted PDA/PVP coating.•Membrane hydrophilicity was increased.•The modification was able to reduce the formation of irreversible fouling. Hydrophilic modification is a promising method to inhibit fouling formation on ultrafiltration membrane. In this work, hydrophilic modification on polypropylene (PP) ultrafiltration membrane was conducted by air assisted polydopamine (PDA) coating with the addition of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). The results showed that the PDA/PVP coating successfully improved the hydrophilicity of the PP membrane that indicated by the decrease of water contact angle and the increase of pure water flux. The hydrophilic modification was also able to reduce the formation of irreversible fouling that has been proved by the increase of flux recovery ratio from 68.95% to 86.14–87.71% after modification. Nevertheless, based on Hermia's model, the most dominant fouling mechanism on PP membrane did not affected by PDA/PVP coating. [Display omitted]