{"id":{"repo_id":"buffalo","oai_identifier":"oai:ubir.buffalo.edu:10477/86703"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/buffalo/oai:ubir.buffalo.edu:10477/86703","repository":{"repo_id":"buffalo","name":"Buffalo","base_url":"https://ubir.buffalo.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Enhancing Antifouling Properties of Ultrafiltration Membranes: Learning from Baier's Curve","abstract":"Ph.D.","abstract_html":"Ph.D.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Tran, Thien; 0000-0002-3517-8322"],"institution":"State University of New York at Buffalo","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Lin, Haiqing","Chemical and Biological Engineering"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-02-21T21:36:39Z","date_published":"2025-02-21T21:36:39Z","updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:05:34Z","subjects":["chemical engineering"],"languages":["eng"],"rights":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/10477/86703","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Lin, Haiqing","Chemical and Biological Engineering"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Tran, Thien; 0000-0002-3517-8322"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2025-02-21T21:36:39Z","2020"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["State University of New York at Buffalo"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Text","Dissertation"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["chemical engineering"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/10477/86703"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Ph.D.","Water is not only vital to human biological need, but it is also important for other applications in daily life. Though water is abundant on Earth, only a small percentage of that is fresh water. Therefore, the need for clean, usable water is extremely high and increasing rapidly. Membrane technology has emerged as an inexpensive and efficient process that effectively desalinate and purify water. However, polymeric membranes for water purification are faced with fouling by the aggregation of contaminants on the surface, decreasing the membrane efficiency. This dissertation aims to enhance the antifouling properties of commercial ultrafiltration (UF) membranes and to elucidate the relationship between materials properties and its effect on transport properties. In our first study inspired by the Baier curve, we demonstrated that perfluoropolymer Teflon AF1600, a low surface energy material, can be an effective coating, enhancing the antifouling properties of UF membranes. The coating Teflon AF1600 at low concentration effectively reduces the amount of proteins adsorbed on the membrane surface, leading to a 54% reduction in fouling rate during filtration. Continuing the low surface energy approach, we proposed a facile grafting of rubbery silicone-based polymer – polysiloxane – on the membrane surface. The grafting effectively lowers the membrane surface energy and enhances its antifouling performance, lowering the fouling rate by 70% compared to commercial UF membranes. This dissertation also investigates the state of water in hydrogel, a commonly used materials for antifouling in water purification membranes. We confirmed the existence of three different water states in a variety of hydrogels. The effect of polymer composition on the amount of each water states was fully investigated. The glass transition temperature of the hydrated hydrogels was adequately described by the non-freezable water content. Our studies also indicated that not all water states participate equally to the transport of ions in the hydrate hydrogel. Finally, we explored the possibility of hydrogel membranes as high-performance forward osmosis (FO) membranes. We demonstrated novel impregnated membranes (IMs) consisting of zwitterionic hydrogel in porous support with a highly crosslinked polyamide skin layer prepared by gel-liquid interfacial polymerization. The nonporous configuration of our IMs eliminates the development of concentration polarization, one of major challenges for current FO membranes. Our membranes also exhibit FO performance that is competitive with current state-of-art commercial FO membranes, demonstrating a potentially new approach for designing higher performance membranes.","**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact library@buffalo.edu. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.**"]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Enhancing Antifouling Properties of Ultrafiltration Membranes: Learning from Baier's Curve"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Lin, Haiqing","Chemical and Biological Engineering"],"dc:creator":["Tran, Thien; 0000-0002-3517-8322"],"dc:date":["2025-02-21T21:36:39Z","2020"],"dc:description":["Ph.D.","Water is not only vital to human biological need, but it is also important for other applications in daily life. Though water is abundant on Earth, only a small percentage of that is fresh water. Therefore, the need for clean, usable water is extremely high and increasing rapidly. Membrane technology has emerged as an inexpensive and efficient process that effectively desalinate and purify water. However, polymeric membranes for water purification are faced with fouling by the aggregation of contaminants on the surface, decreasing the membrane efficiency. This dissertation aims to enhance the antifouling properties of commercial ultrafiltration (UF) membranes and to elucidate the relationship between materials properties and its effect on transport properties. In our first study inspired by the Baier curve, we demonstrated that perfluoropolymer Teflon AF1600, a low surface energy material, can be an effective coating, enhancing the antifouling properties of UF membranes. The coating Teflon AF1600 at low concentration effectively reduces the amount of proteins adsorbed on the membrane surface, leading to a 54% reduction in fouling rate during filtration. Continuing the low surface energy approach, we proposed a facile grafting of rubbery silicone-based polymer – polysiloxane – on the membrane surface. The grafting effectively lowers the membrane surface energy and enhances its antifouling performance, lowering the fouling rate by 70% compared to commercial UF membranes. This dissertation also investigates the state of water in hydrogel, a commonly used materials for antifouling in water purification membranes. We confirmed the existence of three different water states in a variety of hydrogels. The effect of polymer composition on the amount of each water states was fully investigated. The glass transition temperature of the hydrated hydrogels was adequately described by the non-freezable water content. Our studies also indicated that not all water states participate equally to the transport of ions in the hydrate hydrogel. Finally, we explored the possibility of hydrogel membranes as high-performance forward osmosis (FO) membranes. We demonstrated novel impregnated membranes (IMs) consisting of zwitterionic hydrogel in porous support with a highly crosslinked polyamide skin layer prepared by gel-liquid interfacial polymerization. The nonporous configuration of our IMs eliminates the development of concentration polarization, one of major challenges for current FO membranes. Our membranes also exhibit FO performance that is competitive with current state-of-art commercial FO membranes, demonstrating a potentially new approach for designing higher performance membranes.","**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact library@buffalo.edu. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.**"],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/10477/86703"],"dc:language":["eng"],"dc:publisher":["State University of New York at Buffalo"],"dc:rights":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."],"dc:subject":["chemical engineering"],"dc:title":["Enhancing Antifouling Properties of Ultrafiltration Membranes: Learning from Baier's Curve"],"dc:type":["Text","Dissertation"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:05:34Z"}