Design strategy of poly(vinylidene fluoride) membranes for water treatment

The development of facile, benign and energy-efficient water treatment technologies to produce clean water presents a major societal challenge. Membrane-based separation technologies stand out as an ideal solution for water treatment. PVDF-based polymer membranes are gaining popularity because of their desirable properties, such as high mechanical strength, thermal/chemical resistance, and favorable processing characteristics. This review comprehensively introduces the state-of-the-art strategies to modify and design high-performance PVDF membranes for water treatment. High-performance porous PVDF membranes introduced here focus on the pressure driven membrane process and membrane distillation. This review also covers the green fabrication of PVDF membranes, novel strategies to tailor the microstructure and surface properties, Janus and omniphobic PVDF membranes, emerging new materials-hybrid PVDF membranes containing novel 0D, 1D and 2D materials, and self-cleaning PVDF membranes for water treatment. Overall, this review aims to provide understanding of the fundamental science and engineering aspects underlying the use of PVDF and its copolymers for membrane fabrication as well as the challenges and opportunities to guide further advances towards the development of PVDF-based membrane technologies for a sustainable future.