Simple and Effective Preparation of Zwitterionic Anti‐Fouling Poly(vinylidene fluoride) Ultrafiltration Membrane by In Situ Cross‐Linking Polymerization Technology

Abstract Here, we successfully fabricated antifouling zwitterionic polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes based on the in situ cross‐linking polymerization of sulfobetaine methacrylate (SBMA) in the casting solutions with the non‐solvent induced phase separation (NIPS) technique. The structure and performance of zwitterionic PVDF membranes were characterized by attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR‐FTIR) and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), dynamic water contact angle measurement and filtration experiments. The producing of zwitterion chains anchored on the membrane surfaces and resulted in enhanced hydrophilicity and the separation performance of the membrane has a noticeable improvement. The flux recovery of the membrane increased significantly from ∼ 45.1 to ∼ 90%, reversible fouling ( R r ) increased from ∼ 22.2 to ∼ 40.5%, irreversible fouling ( R ir ) decreased from ∼ 54.9 to ∼ 10% and the bovine serum albumin (BSA) rejection increased from ∼ 9.9 to ∼ 81.5%, indicating the prepared PVDF/PSBMA membranes have excellent anti‐fouling property and high separation efficiency.