Use of 2,4,6-pyridinetricarboxylic acid chloride as a novel co-monomer for the preparation of thin film composite polyamide membrane with improved bacterial resistance

•TFC membrane prepared with 2,4,6-pyridinetricarboxylic acid chloride (PTC).•Higher reactivity of PTC towards MPD observed.•Distinct difference in surface morphology with reduced roughness seen.•102–104 enhancement in antibacterial activity measured.•Best overall performance found with mixture of PTC and trimesoyl chloride.

The hitherto unreported 2,4,6-pyridinetricarboxylic acid chloride (PTC) was used with/without trimesoyl chloride (TMC) in the interfacial polymerization reaction with meta-phenylene diamine (MPD) to produce a salt-rejecting polyamide coating over polysulphone support. Besides exhibiting higher reactivity towards MPD, the resultant thin film composite (TFC) membrane showed a lower tendency towards bacterial attachment in comparison to the membrane prepared with TMC alone. The best results were obtained with 2:3–1:1 M ratio of PTC to TMC, in as much as the flux was also enhanced and the salt rejection efficiency remained almost unaffected. The membranes were characterized by ATR-IR spectroscopy, elemental analysis, SEM, AFM, contact angle and zeta potential measurements.