Improving the charged and antifouling properties of PVDF ultrafiltration membranes by blending with polymerized ionic liquid copolymer P(MMA-b-MEBIm-Br)

This study describes the fabrication and properties of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) filtration membranes modified by blending with ionic liquid block copolymer P(MMA- b -MEBIm-Br), which is synthesized via reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization method. The attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron analyses reveal that the ionic liquid block copolymers are immobilized on PVDF membrane surface. The modified PVDF membrane exhibits excellent charged and antifouling properties because of the charged and hydrophilic properties of the copolymer. Scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy also indicate the morphological characteristics of the membrane and demonstrate that the surface porous structure becomes denser after adding the copolymer. The data of filtration and the zeta potential of the membranes suggest that the charged properties of the ionic liquid block copolymers are mainly responsible for the improvement of the reversible fouling ratio and the decrease in the total fouling ratio of the membranes. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017 , 134 , 44751.