Preparation and characterization of poly (vinylidene fluoride)/TiO₂ hybrid membranes

Abstract

Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)/titanium dioxide (TiO₂) hybrid membranes were prepared using nano-TiO₂ as the modifier, and characterized by Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), atomic force microscope (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The characterization results demonstrated that nano-sized TiO₂ particles dispersed homogeneously within the PVDF matrix, contributing to more hydroxyls and smoother surfaces. Moreover, permeate flux, retention factor, porosity, contact angle and anti-fouling tests were carried out to evaluate the effect of TiO₂ concentration on the performance of PVDF membranes. Among all the prepared membranes, PVDF/TiO₂ membrane containing 10 vol.% TiO₂ exhibited the best hydrophilicity with an average pure water flux up to 237 L·m^-2·h^-1, higher than that of unmodified PVDF membranes (155 L·m^-2·h^-1). Besides, the bovine serum albumin rejection of the hybrid membrane was improved evidently from 52.3% to 70.6%, and the contact angle was significantly lowered from 83° to 60°, while the average pore size and its distribution became smaller and narrower.

Keywords

poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) membrane / nano-TiO₂ / anti-fouling performance / water treatment

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the State Key Laboratory Foundation of Ministry of Science and Technology of China (Nos. PCRRY09004 and PCRRF08009), the Key Special Program on Science and Technology for Water Pollution Control and Governance (No. 2008ZX07421-006), International Science & Technology Cooperation Program of China (S2011ZR0434) and Study on Campus Drinking Water Project of Shuitian, Tongji University, China (No. STSJ2011100).

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg