Improved antifouling property of PVDF ultrafiltration membrane with plasma treated PVDF powder

Abstract

In this work, a novel modification method was introduced to improve the antifouling property of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) ultrafiltration membranes, which were prepared with a one-pot process using plasma pretreatment and graft polymerization of PVDF powder. The amphiphilic copolymer of polyvinylidene fluoride-g-polyacrylic acid (PVDF-g-PAA) present in the modified PVDF membrane was demonstrated by infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The improved wetting ability was conducive to improve the water flux, bovine serum albumin rejection and antifouling ability of modified PVDF membranes. A totally novel pH quantitative method was employed to investigate the antifouling property based on the acid–base reaction of the amino acid residues of BSA (pollutant), according to the detected change of BSA adsorption amount on membrane surface and pore surface before and after modification, less irreversible fouling was detected in the modified PVDF membrane due to the existence of PVDF-g-PAA, and it was more convenient to remove the pollutants in the pores of modified PVDF membranes by water flushing.