Membrane technology is commonly used for filtration processes of industrial wastewater. Using membranes for water filtration is a safe and energy efficient solution. One of the main problems that arises during the usage of membranes is the fouling effects. Fouling increases the membrane separation resistance, reduces productivity due to a flux decline and affect membrane selectivity. These effects can be avoid by modifying the surface of the membranes using bio-based materials such as nano-cellulose. Nano-cellulose is a great example of a material obtained from renewable resources, which provides high reinforcement and antifouling properties to membranes.

The aim of this work was the development of coatings with cellulose nano-crystals (CNC) and Tempooxidized cellulose nano-fribrils (T-CNF) using polyvinyl-alcohol (PVOH), as binding phase to enhance mechanical and antifouling properties over pure commercial PES membranes. The coatings were chemically crosslinked to increase mechanical properties and to improve stability of the coating and avoid swelling. It is expected that by avoiding swelling, permeability remains stable through time. All coating formulations remained stable after 10 hours of crossflow filtration. Mechanical properties of the coated membranes were improved in both dry and wet conditions, showing higher values of tensile strenght and E modulus compared to the uncoated ones. In addition, coated membranes showed high hydrophilicity and low adherence of bovine serum albumin (BSA).

The coatings developed showed stability over PES membranes and provide them with a nanostructured surface which showed an extended durability in use. The modified surface membranes presented good mechanical properties in dry and wet conditions, high flux, high hydrophilicity, resistance to BSA fouling and to different pH environments. Moreover, these modified membranes showed promising results for fast upscaling at industrial level due to the simplicity of the coating process and the availability of the materials in the market.