RT Journal Article
T1 Experimental and theoretical studies on the formation of pure beta-phase polymorphs during fabrication of polyvinylidene fluoride membranes by cyclic carbonate solvents
A1 Ismail, Norafiqah
A1 Essalhi, Mohamed
A1 Rahmati, Mahmoud
A1 Cui, Zhaoliang
A1 Khayet Souhaimi, Mohamed
A1 Tavajohi, Naser
AB The use of highly toxic solvents presents significant risks to both the environment and human health. Therefore, the adoption of green solvents will be crucial for achieving sustainable membrane production. This work reports the use of inexpensive environmentally friendly biobased and biodegradable cyclic carbonate solvents, namely ethylene carbonate (EC), propylene carbonate (PC), and butylene carbonate (BC), to fabricate polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes. The solvent dependence of the phase inversion mechanisms, morphology, crystalline structures, and polymorphism of the prepared PVDF membranes were investigated. Polymorph analysis revealed that membrane fabrication in EC or PC yielded exclusively the beta-phase product, whereas PVDF membrane fabrication in BC yielded a mixture of alpha and beta phase material. The mechanism of beta-phase formation was investigated using molecular dynamics simulation and shown to depend on the extent of hydrogen bonding at the polymer-solvent interface. The PVDF membrane formed in EC exhibited the highest porosity and pure water permeability, and was therefore tested in direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD), exhibiting promising results in terms of permeate flux and salt rejection. These results suggest that large-scale production of piezoelectric PVDF membranes using green solvents should be practically feasible.
PB Royal Soc Chemistry
SN 1463-9262
YR 2021
FD 2021-03-07
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/8300
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/8300
LA eng
NO We appreciate the financial support from the Kempe Foundation and Bio4energy program, the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through its project CTM2015-65348-C2-2-R and the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities through its project RTI2018-096042-B-C22.
NO Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO)
NO Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN)
NO Kempe Foundation
NO Bio4energy program
DS Docta Complutense
RD 25 dic 2025