Ceramic microfiltration (MF) membranes have been extensively utilized in water/wastewater treatment. However, membrane fouling is regarded as a serious and poorly resolved obstacle that interferes with the stable water purification process. As a result, it would lead to a decrease in permeate flux / water quality and an increase in the transmembrane pressure / operational costs. Even though the fouled membrane should be periodically recovered using physical / chemical cleaning, they do not provide satisfactory results. For this reason, surface modification is becoming a critical technique for the development of novel ceramic membranes with excellent fouling resistance.

We thus developed the organic / inorganic surface modification techniques which could facilitate the fouling resistance by controlling surface properties of ceramic membranes....