Fabrication and characterization of amphiphilic PVDF copolymer ultrafiltration membrane with high anti-fouling property

Novel anti-fouling poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) membranes were fabricated via phase inversion method, directly using amphiphilic copolymers, which were synthesized from PVDFs with three different molecular weight grafted poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate (POEM) (PVDF-g-POEM), as membrane materials. Atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) method was employed to synthesize the amphiphilic PVDF copolymers. The membranes were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), pure water flux, contact angle measurement and BSA solution filtration experiments, etc. The permeability of the PVDF copolymer membrane reached to 567.8 L m⁻² h⁻¹ bar⁻¹ with molecular weight cut off (MWCO) of about 40.0 kDa. In addition, the stable state flux of the PVDF copolymer membranes was much higher than that of PVDF homopolymer membranes when BSA solution was filtrated, and after cleaning, the pure water flux recovery ratio of the copolymer membrane reached to 98.1%. These results indicate that the prepared PVDF membrane possesses good performance and anti-fouling property.