DMSO intercalation tunes antibiofouling properties of MXene/PVDF composite membranes: Toward sustainable wastewater treatment

The synthesis of antibiofouling polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes has long been a core pursuit of research community. In this study, MXene nanomaterials intercalated by dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) were incorporated into the PVDF matrix to fabricate MXene/PVDF composite membranes in the phase inversion process. The characterization results indicated that a DMSO dosage of 40 mL DMSO /g MXene enabled the laminar structure conversion of MXene from multilayer to few-layer, and imparted it with the lowest water contact angle and most negative zeta potential. With a few-layer MXene addition of 1.5 wt%, the resultant composite membrane (FP-1.5) showed a pure water flux of 126.4 L/(m 2 ·h), reaching 2–8 folds of pristine PVDF (PP) membrane and its multilayer rival (MP-1.5), principally due to the optimized membrane morphology as well as increased hydrophilicity and electronegativity. The increased energy barrier of FP-1.5 membrane decreased its biofouling propensity, as verified by the extended Derjaguin–Landau–Verwey–Overbeek (XDLVO) theory. The application potential of FP-1.5 membrane was corroborated by its superior antibiofouling performance during both batch and long-term tests. The fabrication strategy of MXene/PVDF composite membranes is expected to lay the foundation for rational design of high-performance MXene-polymer hybrid membrane for sustainable wastewater treatment.