Enhancing ultrafiltration membrane permeability and antifouling performance through surface patterning with features resembling feed spacers

Abstract This study investigates the potential of surface-patterned membranes in replacing conventional feed spacer-assisted filtration process. Two types surface patterns, namely diamond (D) and honeycomb (HC), were utilized fabrication membranes. These showed larger effective membrane area higher average porosity when compared to flat PES membrane. The D-Patterned HC-Patterned achieved pure water flux 76.6 ± 16.9 88.3 17.4 L m −2 h −1 , respectively, which was than with without use spacers. Furthermore, patterned reported lower natural organic matter (NOM) fouling short long-term experiments recovery ratio ( FRR ), indicating their superior anti-fouling performance over using Overall, simple technique, permeability, excellent render them suitable for potentially current configuration used processes.