Membrane bio-fouling is one of the main obstacles for the wide application of reverse osmosis (RO) membrane technology. To solve this problem
a novel anti-bacterial RO membrane was fabricated by second interfacial polymerization of self-synthesized cationic biguanidine functionalized polyvinylamine (PVAmG). Virgin membranes and the polyvinylamine (PVAm)-modified RO membranes were prepared for comparisons. The chemical structures of PVAm and PVAmG were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and elemental analysis. The membranes were systematically characterized by XPS
SEM
AFM
contact angle analyzer and Zeta potential analyzer. The test results show that the modified membranes well maintain the high permselectivity. Moreover
the PVAmG-modified membranes exhibited strong anti-bacterial property (mortalities of 99.9%) against both the Gram-negative Escherichia coli and Gram-positive Bacillus subtilis.