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Abstract
This study investigates activated sludge filterability of a commercial poly(vinylidene fluoride) microfiltration membrane with and without titanium dioxide (TiO2) coating. Deposition of a TiO2 thin film on the membrane surface was made by direct current reactive sputtering from a high purity Ti target in Ar/O2 atmosphere. The modified membrane was characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis, water contact angle measurement, scanning electron microscopy, and activated sludge filtration measurement. The results showed about 52.5% contact angle reduction of the modified membrane. The modified membrane exhibited less flux decline in activated sludge filtration due to the improvement of surface physical properties of the membrane. A comparison of filtration index (I40) between the modified and the neat membranes showed about twofold increase due to the TiO2 coating. The loss of nano-TiO2 particles was revealed by energy dispersion of X-ray analysis after an ultrasonic washing test, and this influenced stability of the modified membrane.