Water is one of the important natural resources on earth whereas only 3% of the water is fresh and suitable for drinking. Membrane technology offers efficient and versatile solutions for various water treatment challenges, ranging from filtration and separation to desalination and water reuse. However, membrane fouling caused by contaminants remains a significant issue that impairs performance. Enhancing the surface hydrophilicity of membranes mitigates fouling and answers the recovery of membrane life span. Here, the two post-treatment technologies for surface hydrophilicity enhancement: surface coating and plasma treatment, were investigated, and compared the enhancement behavior originating from two. Several parameters for enhancing hydrophilicity such as surface morphologies, surface roughness, and bulk properties varied by two treatment methods are reported. As a result, it indicated an increase of surface hydrophilicity (i.e., from >35% to 60%) for both technical approaches, in which the surface coating technology offered superior wetting dynamics, revealing the absence of hydrophobic surface irregularities over the membrane surface.

Keywords: Hydrophilicity, Surface-coating, Surface modification, Plasma-treatment, Wetting