Preparation of Polyvinylidene Fluoride Separation Membranes Using 3-methoxy-<i>N</i>,<i>N</i>-dimethylpropionamide, a Low-Toxic Solvent

Research on the use of green solvents for the preparation of polymer separation membranes has received much attention from industry and academia. For the first time, we used 3-methoxy-N,N-dimethylpropionamide (MDMP) as a low-toxic solvent for the preparation of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes, in which MDMP has good water solubility and can be used to prepare polymer membranes using the non-solvent-induced phase separation (NIPS) method. Various properties of the membranes, such as pure water permeability, surface and cross-sectional structure, and overall porosity, were investigated. We also investigated the solubility of MDMP in other polymeric membrane materials, and the results showed that MDMP had good solubility to most membrane materials, except polyacrylonitrile (PAN). In addition, the use of different membrane materials in the presence of MDMP showed different surface and cross-sectional structures, and therefore, as a low-toxic solvent, MDMP will have important applications in the field of polymer membrane preparation.