The understanding of fouling behavior and mechanism is critical for fouling control in membrane processes. This study adopted a novel fluorescence front-face excitation-emission matrix (FF-EEM) approach to characterize the fluorescence foulants deposited on membrane surface. Methods for quantifying protein and humic substances deposited on ultrafiltration (UF) membrane were established. Foulants deposited on the membrane surface during the UF of model foulants (bovine serum albumin (BSA) and humic acids (HA)) and wastewater effluent organic matter (EfOM) were quantified using the FF-EEM and liquid EEM coupled with mass balance calculation. The foulants mass data obtained by FF-EEM were further used to analyze fouling mechanism involved in UF. The FF-EEM based method was more accurate than the liquid EEM based method, as the problems associated with liquid EEM based method (such as the error propagation in the mass balance calculation and the ineffectiveness of inner filter correction) were avoided in FF-EEM based method. The fouling resistance did not correlate well with the amount of foulants, as the major fouling mechanism instead of the mass of foulants mainly determined the extent of fouling. This work demonstrated FF-EEM could be a powerful tool for investigating fouling evolution and fouling mechanism in UF process.

对结垢行为和机理的理解对于膜工艺中结垢的控制至关重要。这项研究采用了一种新颖的荧光正面激发-发射矩阵（FF-EEM）方法来表征沉积在膜表面的荧光污垢。建立了定量分析超滤膜上蛋白质和腐殖质的方法。使用FF-EEM和液体EEM结合质量平衡计算，对模型污染物（牛血清白蛋白（BSA）和腐殖酸（HA））和废水废水有机物（EfOM）的超滤过程中沉积在膜表面的污染物进行定量。FF-EEM获得的污垢质量数据被进一步用于分析超滤所涉及的污垢机理。基于FF-EEM的方法比基于液体EEM的方法更准确，因为在基于FF-EEM的方法中避免了与基于液体EEM的方法相关的问题（例如质量平衡计算中的误差传播和内部过滤器校正的无效性）。耐污垢性与污垢量没有很好的相关性，因为主要的污垢机理而不是污垢质量主要决定了污垢的程度。这项工作表明，FF-EEM可能是研究超滤过程中结垢演变和结垢机理的有力工具。作为主要的结垢机制而不是结垢物的质量，主要决定了结垢的程度。这项工作表明，FF-EEM可能是研究超滤过程中结垢演变和结垢机理的有力工具。作为主要的结垢机制而不是结垢物的质量，主要决定了结垢的程度。这项工作表明，FF-EEM可能是研究超滤过程中结垢演变和结垢机理的有力工具。