Dear all,
I need to obtain superhydrophilic PVDF-based membranes. Anyone know a simple method to do so? I tryed by incorporating zeolites on the PVDF-based solution but it do not work since the memebrane remains hydrophobic. I do not want to change the morphology of the pores and I really need like one step method (preferably).
Thank you,
Vanessa Cardoso
I tryed with Zeolites Y (Si/Al: 5.1) but today I will try with Zeolite XT (Si/Al):1.2. I need the suface of my membrane to be hydrophilic. Any suggestion wil be great!
Tks
Zeolite may not serve the purpose. I think you should go for other hydrophilic agents such as Poly(ethylene oxide) PEO.
Dear Chandan,
Do you have any paper I can read about it?
Tks
"Microporous polymer electrolyte
based on PVDF/PEO star polymer blends for lithium
ion batteries. "
Hydrophilic Modification of PVDF Microfiltration Membrane with Poly (Ethylene Glycol) Dimethacrylate through Surface Polymerization "
Preparation and
properties of PVDF/PVA hollow fiber membranes
In addition to these amorphous or semicrystlline polymers, you can also tune hydrophilicity of the pvdf through inorganic nanoparticle such as TiO2, ZnO, Fe2o3 etc. Synthesis of these nanoparticles are well established. You can synthesis these particles insitu in the PVDF matrix also.
For this refer this literature
Effect of in situ synthesized Fe2O3 and Co3O4
nanoparticles on electroactive b phase
crystallization and dielectric properties of
poly(vinylidene fluoride) thin films
The hydrophilicity of the PVDF can also be varied though plasma treatment which your group has already tried.
"Influence of oxygen plasma treatment parameters on polyvinylidene fluoride electrospun fiber mat wettablity"
Try to read the experimental section of these paper to have some idea to proceed with.
Thanks
Thank you for all the references.
I tried to combine hydrophilic zeolites with plasma treatment. It works but not as well as I would. Additionally I do not know if plasma is a good option since sometimes the membranes can lose their biocompatibility. Since I want to use for biomedical applications I need to guarantee that the fillers will not affect nether the biocompatibility and I do not want to change also the morphology of the pores. I mean PVDF with zeolites works if I dip the membrane into the water and then the membrane absorb water. However, what I want is that the surface of the PVDF membrane becomes superhydrophilic and thus absorbs water.
Most of the polymers and nanoparticles I mentioned are biocompatible and their biomedical applications are well established. In addition, polymers for example peo, ps and pmma would aid in getting porous structure. polyacrylic acid/ peo can be better choice to get superhydrophilic membranes. In the current situation, you can try PVDF-PVA with zeolite, I am sure that this combination would give results according to you expectation.
Remember that the instantaneous value of the contact may give a drastic change. Therefore always go for a time Vs contact angle measurement to assess the hydrophilicity rather than believing an instantaneous value of contact angle.
good luck
I also definitively recommend plasma treatment. A possible route could be H2-plasma (to defluorinate the surface) followed by O2-plasma (to graft oxygen containing functionalities).
Best wishes!
I agree with Edward and Rose that using plasma treatment is the way forward.
I totally agree with researchers mentioned that plasma treatment is the best choice