Enhancement of solvent uptake in porous PVDF nanofibers derived by a water-mediated electrospinning technique

The effect of a N,N-dimethylformamide(DMF)/acetone solvent system(3:7,4:6,5:5,6:4,7:3)and spinning medium(air and water)on the membrane morphology and the structure-property relationship were investigated.A facile method was optimized to generate a porous,polymer-fiber membrane via the combinative effect of electrospinning and thermally inducing phase separation of the DMF/acetone(4:6)solvent system in a water medium.The attenuated total reflection(ATR)-Fourier transform infrared(FTIR)results showed an increased b-phase compared to the pristine poly(vinylidene fluoride)(PVDF).The XRD and DSC results further confirmed that the co-existing a-and b-phases in the pristine PVDF were converted into a unique b-phase in the electrospun membranes.In addition,the solvent uptake percentage of the DMF/acetone(4:6)solvent system in a water medium(540)is much greater than that in an air medium(320),and over two times better than that of commercial polyethylene(PE)membranes(190).Similarly,the discharge capacity of the PVDF membrane separator prepared with the DMF/acetone(4:6)solvent system in a water medium is higher than that of the air medium.This enhancement of solvent uptake might be due to the interconnected porous morphology present in the water medium.