Synthesis, characterization and antibacterial properties of reverse osmosis membranes from cellulose bromoacetate

The antibacterial alkyl bromide groups were introduced into cellulose diacetate (CDA) through the esterification between highly active bromoacetyl bromide and hydroxyl groups under mild conditions and the modified cellulose acetate reverse osmosis membrane (Br-CA-RO) was obtained subsequently after phase inversion process. The results of FTIR and ¹H-NMR indicated the existence of alkyl bromide groups in the modified CDA powder. The optical density method was used to confirm its antibacterial ability. The chemical structure and morphology characterization demonstrated that the anchoring of bromoacetyl groups as antibacterial part brought out minimal alteration on membrane chemical structure and its asymmetric structure, but the regularity and density of membranes increased with the degree of esterification. The property testing results showed that the whole physical performance was enhanced with the thermal stability getting slightly worse. Both the flux and salt rejection of Br-CA-RO increased after modification and the latter was close to that of cellulose triacetate RO membrane. The dynamic contact antibacterial testing implied that Br-CA-RO showed much higher antibacterial ability than unmodified RO membranes, and its relative bactericidal rates against E. coli (gram negative) and S. aureus (gram positive) were higher than 73.0% and 93.5%, respectively. This method offers a new approach for antibacterial and functional modification of CA-RO membranes.