Hydrophilic and Positively Charged Polyvinylidene Fluoride Membranes for Water Treatment with Excellent Anti-Oil and Anti-Biocontamination Properties

• Published in: Membranes (Basel) Vol. 12; no. 4; p. 438
• Main Authors: Wang, Zirui, Shen, Shusu, Zhang, Linbin, Ben Hida, Abdessamad, Zhang, Ganwei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 18.04.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Antifouling; antifouling modification; Antifouling substances; blend membrane; Bovine serum albumin; Contact angle; Filtration; Fluoride; Fluorides; Fourier transforms; hydrophilic; Hydrophilicity; Membrane processes; Membrane separation; Membranes; Oil; Pollutants; polycationic liquid; Polymers; Polyvinylidene fluorides; Pore size; Porosity; Rejection rate; Serum albumin; Spectrum analysis; Surface charge; Thermogravimetric analysis; Wastewater; Wastewater pollution; Water purification; Water treatment; United States > US; China; polycationic liquid; hydrophilic; water treatment; antifouling modification; blend membrane
• ISSN: 2077-0375; 2077-0375
• DOI: 10.3390/membranes12040438

Membrane fouling limits the rapid development of membrane separations. In this study, a blend membrane containing polycationic liquid (P(BVImBr -co-PEGMA )) is presented that can improve the antifouling performance of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes. By mixing the polycationic liquid into PVDF, an improved membrane-surface hydrophilicity and enlarged membrane porosity were detected. The water contact angle decreased from 82° to 67°, the porosity enlarged from 7.22% to 89.74%, and the pure water flux improved from 0 to 631.68 L m h . The blend membrane surfaces were found to be always positively charged at pH 3~10. By applying the membranes to the filtration of oil/water emulsion and bovine serum albumin (BSA) solution, they showed a very high rejection rate to pollutants in wastewater (99.4% to oil droplets and 85.6% to BSA). The positive membrane surface charge and the increased membrane hydrophilicity resulted in excellent antifouling performance, with the flux recovery rates of the dynamic filtration tests reaching 97.3% and 95.5%, respectively. Moreover, the blend membranes demonstrated very low BSA adhesion and could even kill , showing excellent antifouling properties.