Continuous Flow Synthesis of Polyvinylidene Fluoride

Driven by surging demand in battery technologies, the global production of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) urgently requires scalable and efficient synthesis methods. Current batch processes are constrained by mass and heat transfer limitations, causing scalability and efficiency bottlenecks. Here, we introduce a novel continuous flow reactor for the fluorosurfactant-free emulsion polymerization of VDF, utilizing a dense tubular membrane made of Teflon AF-2400 to establish a stable phase boundary. This significantly improves mass and heat transfer, reduces energy use, and enables high space-time yields exceeding 190 kg m^-3 h^-1 at just 15 bar gas pressure. Our approach offers substantial advantages in industrial scalability, consistency in polymer quality, and potential adaptability to other gas-liquid-solid polymerization systems.