Antibiotic enhanced dopamine polymerization for engineering antifouling and antimicrobial membranes

In this work, we adopt a new tobramycin (TOB)-dopamine coating system to endow thin film composite membranes with excellent antifouling and antimicrobial properties. Combining the hydrophilic and antibiofouling properties of both TOB and polydopamine, the TOB-dopamine modified membrane exhibits improved antifouling and antimicrobial properties compared with the conventional dopamine modified and unmodified membranes. The TOB-dopamine system has two advantages over the conventional modification with dopamine and tris buffer solution. First, TOB-dopamine modification is more efficient than the conventional dopamine modification due to the accelerating effect of TOB on dopamine polymerization. Second, the TOB-dopamine modified membranes exhibit better hydrophilicity, and enhanced antifouling and antimicrobial properties than the conventional dopamine modified membrane. Beyond engineering membranes, the proposed TOB-dopamine system can also be extended for wider surface hydrophilic and antimicrobial modifications. (C) 2019 Chinese Chemical Society and Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.