Hydrophilic and anti-fouling PVDF blend ultrafiltration membranes using polyacryloylmorpholine-based triblock copolymers as amphiphilic modifiers

To fabricate hydrophilic and anti-fouling PVDF ultrafiltration membrane, a kind of tailor-made symmetrical amphiphilic triblock copolymer, polyacryloylmorpholine-b-poly (methyl methacrylate)-b-polyacryloylmorpholine (PACMO-b-PMMA-b-PACMO, termed as PAMA), was prepared via RAFT polymerization and employed as an in situ surface segregation modifier. FTIR, 1H NMR, and GPC were used to verify the well-defined chemical structure of PAMA. The hydrophilic PACMO segments of PAMA were enriched on the surface of membrane skin and interior pores as confirmed by ATR-FTIR, XPS, EDX, and water contact angle tests, endowing the blend membranes with outstanding hydrophilicity. The different cross-sectional and surface morphologies of the PVDF/PAMA blend membranes indicated that the introduction of PAMA modifiers could manipulate membrane structure due to their strong pore-forming ability. Compared with the pure PVDF membrane, PVDF/PAMA blend membranes showed higher permeability for water (28.1 times higher), excellent rejection for bovine serum albumin (up to 98.3%), and enhanced fouling resistance with a higher flux recovery ratio (up to 98.1%). Therefore, the approach of in situ surface segregation employed the RAFT mediated well-defined amphiphilic PAMA triblock copolymer modifiers for the preparation of anti-fouling PVDF membranes showed a great potential in water purification.