Chemical Engineering Research and Design 1 4 9 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 158–168 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Chemical Engineering Research and Design journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cherd Direct filtration procedure to attain antibacterial TFC membrane: A facile developing route of membrane surface properties and fouling resistance Atefe Soleymani Lashkenrai a , Mahsa Najafi b,* , Majid Peyravi c , Mohsen Jahanshahi c,** , Mohammad Taghi Hamed Mosavian a,* * * , Alireza Amiri c , Mohammad Hassan Shahavi d a Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran b School of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran c Department of Chemical Engineering, Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, Shariati Ave., Babol, 47148-71167 Iran d Faculty of Engineering Modern Technologies, Amol University of Special Modern Technologies (AUSMT), Amol, Iran a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 12 April 2019 Received in revised form 23 June 2019 Accepted 1 July 2019 Available online 16 July 2019 Keywords: Antibacterial TFC membrane Polyrhodanine Direct filtration Antifouling property a b s t r a c t In order to address a global issue in regard to the shortage of drinking water resources, reverse osmosis (RO) processes have been considerably attended to provide people with high-quality fresh water. In spite of many efforts carried out for preparation of efficient RO membranes, fouling/biofouling remains as a significant challenge. In this study, anti- bacterial polyamide thin film composite (PA-TFC) decorated with hydrophilic polyrhodanine (PRh) nanoparticles was fabricated through a novel route of direct filtration method. This method is a facile technique for modification of the membrane surface, in particular, for recovery of the membrane antibacterial agent which is lost during the process. The synthe- sized membranes were studied for morphology, surface functional groups, hydrophilicity, and surface roughness via FESEM, FTIR, contact angle, and AFM analysis. Both diffusion inhibition zone and colony formation unit tests exhibited excellent biocidal activity of the PRh loaded membranes against Gram-negative Escherichia coli and Gram-positive Staphylococ- cus aureus strains. Moreover, the best fouling resistance was assigned to PA-TFC membrane decorated with 0.5%wt. PRh, and PA-TFC membrane modified with 0.75%wt. PRh revealed the best salt rejection ability. © 2019 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction In recent decades, climatic changes and population expansion have diminished the accessible freshwater. Lack of freshwater resources gives rise to the multitudinous problems in respect to the human health and the environment which made even the problems more severe in the near future. So as to relieve these upsetting effects, a reliable and robust ∗ Corresponding author. ∗∗ Corresponding author. ∗∗∗ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: ms.mahsanajafi@gmail.com (M. Najafi), mmohse@nit.ac.ir (M. Jahanshahi), mosavian@um.ac.ir (M.T.H. Mosavian). water treatment procedure is highly needed (Najafi et al., 2019; Najafi Lahiji et al., 2018; Rahimpour et al., 2012; Chevinli et al., 2019; Saleh and Gupta, 2012). Thin-film composite (TFC) as a class of well-developed RO membrane has exhibited excellent potential in separation pro- cesses owing to its various advantages such as the high capability of salt rejection, desirable permeability, low energy consumption, and no environmentally side effects (Fathizadeh et al., 2011; Kong et al., 2010; Mollahosseini et al., 2012; Peyravi et al., 2012; Ridgway et al., 2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cherd.2019.07.003 0263-8762/© 2019 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.