Tailoring novel fibrillar morphologies in poly(vinylidene fluoride) membranes using a low toxic triethylene glycol diacetate (TEGDA) diluent

• Low toxic diluent, triethylene glycol diacetate was used to make microporous PVDF membrane.
• TIPS process produced PVDF membrane with high elongation and water permeability.
• PVDF membrane showed a α phase, narrow and unimodal pore size distribution and fibrillar structure.

Thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) process is an important method to prepare high performance poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) membranes, but the toxic diluent for membrane formation poses environmental problems. In the present paper, triethylene glycol diacetate (TEGDA) was introduced as a low toxic diluent to fabricate PVDF membranes via TIPS method. A specific fibrillar structure which yields the PVDF membranes with high elongation and permeability was formed. Morphologies, structures, properties and permeation performances of the PVDF membranes showed that they presented α phase, narrow and unimodal pore size distribution, bicontinuous and fibrillar structure, good mechanical strength and comparable permeability.

PVDF with low toxic diluent TEGDA via TIPS produced microporous membrane with high elongation and water permeability.Figure optionsDownload high-quality image (212 K)Download as PowerPoint slide