The facile method developed for preparing polyvinylidene fluoride plasma separation membrane via macromolecular interaction

The design of membrane pore is critical for membrane preparation. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane exhibits outstanding properties in the water-treatment field. However, it is a huge challenge to prepare PVDF macro-pore plasma separation membrane by non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS). Herein, a facile strategy is proposed to prepare PVDF macro-pore plasma separation membrane via macromolecular interaction. ATR-FTIR and 1H NMR showed that the intermolecular interaction existed between polyethylene oxide (PEO) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). It could significantly affect the PVDF macro-pore membrane structure. The maximum pore of the PVDF membrane could be effectively adjusted from small-pore/medium-pore to macro-pore by changing the molecular weight of PEO. The PVDF macro-pore membrane was obtained successfully when PEO-200 k existed with PVP. It exhibited higher plasma separation properties than the currently used plasma separation membrane. Moreover, it had excellent hemocompatibility due to the similar plasma effect, hemolysis, prothrombin time, blood effect and complement C3a effect with the current utilized plasma separation membrane, implying its great potential application. The proposed facile strategy in this work provides a new method to prepare PVDF macro-pore plasma separation membrane by NIPS.