In situ growth of biocidal AgCl crystals in the top layer of asymmetric polytriazole membranes
L. F. Villalobos, S. Chisca, H. Cheng, P. Hong, S. P. Nunes, K.-V. Peinemann
RSC Advances, 6, 46696-46701, (2016)
Scalable fabrication strategies to concentrate biocidal materials in only the surface of membranes are highly desirable. In this letter, tight-UF polytriazole membranes with a high concentration of biocide silver chloride (AgCl) crystals dispersed in only their top layer are presented. They were made following a simple dual-bath process that is compatible with current commercial membrane casting facilities. These membranes can achieve a 150-fold increase in their antimicrobial character compared to their silver-free counterpart. Moreover, fine-tuning of their properties is straightforward. A change in the silver concentration in one of the baths is sufficient to tune the permeance, molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) and silver loading of the final membrane.