Effect of solution extrusion rate on morphology and performance of polyvinylidene fluoride hollow fiber membranes using polyvinyl pyrrolidone as an additive

Abstract

Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) hollow fiber membranes prepared from spinning solutions with different polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) contents (1% and 5%) at different extrusion rates were obtained by wet/dry phase process keeping all other spinning parameters constant. In spinning these PVDF hollow fibers, dimethylacetamide (DMAc) and PVP were used as a solvent and an additive, respectively. Water was used as the inner coagulant. Dimethylformamide (DMF) and water (30/70) were used as the external coagulant. The performances of membranes were characterized in terms of water flux, solute rejection for the wet membranes. The structure and morphology of PVDF hollow fiber were examined by BET adsorption, dry/wet weight method and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It is found that the increase in PVP content and extrusion rate of spinning solution can result in the increase of water flux and decrease of solute rejection. The improvements of interconnected porous structure and pore size are induced by shear-thinning behavior of spinning solution at high extrusion rates, which could result in the increase of water flux of hollow fiber membranes. The increase of extrusion rate also leads to the increase of membrane thickness due to the recovery effect of elastic property of polymer chains.