Tailoring novel fibrillar morphologies in poly(vinylidene fluoride) membranes using a low toxic triethTailoring novel fibrillar morphologies in poly(vinylidene fluoride) membranes using a low toxic triethylene glycol diacetate (TEGDA) diluent Zhaoliang Cui, Naser Tavajohi Hassankiadeh, Suk Young Lee, Kyung Taek Woo, Jong Myung Lee, Aldo Sanguineti, Vincenzo Arcella, Young Moo Lee, Enrico Driolia Abstract Thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) process is an important method to prepare high performance poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) membranes, but the toxic diluent for membrane formation poses environmental problems. In the present paper, triethylene glycol diacetate (TEGDA) was introduced as a low toxic diluent to fabricate PVDF membranes via TIPS method. A specific fibrillar structure which yields the PVDF membranes with high elongation and permeability was formed. Morphologies, structures, properties and permeation performances of the PVDF membranes showed that they presented α phase, narrowandunimodalpore sizedistribution,bicontinuousand fibrillarstructure,goodmechanical strength and comparable permeability. |