Surface Characterization of Argon/Methane Mixture Atmospheric-Pressure Plasma-Treated Filtration Poly(Vinylidene Fluoride) Membrane and Its Flux Enhancement

Abstract

Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) was extensively used as the filtration material because of its stable thermal and chemical capabilities. However, hydrophobic surface of PVDF membrane induces the restriction for its manufacturing uses. In light of this, the plasma at atmospheric pressure was used for the PVDF membrane surface treatment with argon/methane gas mixture in this paper. The variation in hydrophilicity of the plasma-treated PVDF membrane was analyzed by the contact angle analysis. It shows that this plasma is operative in membrane surface modification. The argon/methane gas mixture cyclonic plasma-treated PVDF membrane also showed the enhanced filtration behavior rather than the untreated PVDF membrane.Index Terms-Hydrophilicity surface modification, plasma treatment, poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) membrane.

Plasma Modification and Synthesis of Membrane Materials—A Mechanistic Review

“…Therefore, the plasma-activated species interacted with each other (and/or air) instead of with the membrane surfaces during the atmospheric-pressure plasmas led to the aggregation of the particles also known as powers formation and inefficient hydrophilicity enhancement [ 24 , 79 ]. A similar impact of the plasma duration and gap between substrates and glow was obtained in the study of modifying the commercial UF PVDF (Millipore Co.) using the mixture of Ar and Methane (CH 4 ) in the same plasma set-up [ 80 ]. The XPS and FTIR results also supported the hydrophilicity enhancement caused by the formation of oxygen-enriched functional groups.…”

“…Hence, the methane plasma induced an oxidation effect on the PVDF. In accordance with the modification done on the commercial PVDF, carbonyl (C=O) functional groups appeared in the FTIR spectrum of the modified PVDF, which were previously undetected on the surface of the pristine PVDF [ 80 ]. The membrane performance of the modified PVDF was also altered after atmospheric-pressure plasma treatments.…”

“…The hydrophilicity enhancement induced by atmospheric-pressure plasma was further confirmed by the pure water flux measurements. A 60% flux enhancement of the modified PVDF was obtained at transmembrane pressure 1.4 bar [ 80 ].…”

Deposition of thin films using argon/acetylene atmospheric pressure plasma jet

“…The roughness of those films depends on applied power and can be varied in a wide range (from 2 nm to 120 nm). Juang et al [16] treated polyvinylidene fluoride membrane using APPJ in mixture of argon and methane. The analysis after the treatment shows an increase of wettability and the presence of C_O bonds on the surface.…”