Experimental investigation of the effect of electrospinning parameters on properties of superhydrophobic PDMS/PMMA membrane and its application in membrane distillation

Abstract Considerable efforts have been devoted to finding economic and simple preparation methods for polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) superhydrophobic membrane in past decades. This study provides a simple method to electrospin PDMS membrane using poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) as carrier polymer. Effects of PMMA concentration, PDMS/PMMA mass ratio and main parameters of electrospinning process (voltage and injection rate) were investigated to obtain superhydrophobic membrane with high water contact angle (WCA). A highest WCA of 163° could be obtained on the membrane surface fabricated by electrospinning solution containing PDMS: PMMA: tetrahydrofuran (THF): N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) (mass ratio 1: 1: 8.88: 9.48) under applied voltage of 11 kV and injection rate of 0.1 mm/min. The superhydrophobic PDMS/PMMA membrane was further applied in membrane distillation process for desalination, and a high permeation flux of 39.61 L/m2 h and an excellent salt rejection of 99.96% were achieved during long-term MD process (24 h).