A novel approach to fabricate interconnected sponge-like and highly permeable polyvinylidene fluoride hollow fiber membranes for direct contact membrane distillation

• Interconnected sponge-like PVDF hollow fibers were prepared by TIPS method for MD.
• The structure and performance of the hollow fibers were investigated.
• The maximum MD flux of the hollow fibers reached 77.6 kg/(m2 h).

A novel, environmental friendly approach was introduced to fabricate polyvinylidene fluoride hollow fiber membranes with interconnected sponge-like structure and high permeability for membrane distillation. The effect of different parameters on the morphologies and properties of the membranes were investigated. The pore size and porosity were in the range of 0.20–0.40 μm and 61.07–79.36% respectively. The maximum tensile strength was 6.941 MPa. The nitrogen flux under 0.2 MPa and pure water flux were as high as 44 L/(m2 s) and 4290 L/(m2 atm h) respectively. The direct contact membrane distillation flux reached 77.6 kg/(m2 h). The membranes prepared by this method meet the requirements of direct contact membrane distillation.

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