Direct replication effect of self-cleaning leaf on fouling property of surface modified membranes

Membrane surface morphology and structure affect the tendency to fouling behavior of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes. This investigation reports the surface replication ofnasturtium leaf onto commercial TFC-SR membrane using a direct replicating technique by polyetersulfone (PES) molds. Itwas found that the low-fouling properties of the roughened membranes were closely correlated with their surface roughness i.e. higher surface roughness leads to higher fouling resistance