ThePreparation of Electrospun PVDF/TBAC Multimorphology Nanofiber Membrane and Its Application in Direct Contact Membrane Distillation.

Abstract

Microporous membrane with a hydrophobic surface, high porosity, and narrow pore size distribution is the ideal membrane distillation (MD) membrane. The electrospun membranes for MD are a new type and effective way to seawater desalination. Herein, a novel polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)/tetrabutylammonium chloride (TBAC) electrospun nanofiber membrane (ENMs) fabricated apply to for direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD). Combine with the spinning condition, the characteristic and content of TBAC significant effect on the multimorphology structure of nanofiber. Therefore, the porous structure and morphology of PVDF/TBAC ENMs can be well-designed by optimizing relative humidity and TBAC concentration in spinning process, three different structure nanofiber membranes are obtained. Lab-scale setup is used to test membrane separation performance. The result indicates that the ultrafine ENMs with 0.025 mol L-1 TBAC presented a steady water flux of about 20.6 L m-2 h-1 and a high-efficiency salt rejection rate of over 99%. PVDF/TBAC ENMs are expected to provide a solution for development of efficient water treatment membrane.