Development of multifunctional membranes via plasma-assisted nonsolvent induced phase separation.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 38316772.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-024-45414-9 and PMC identifier 10844271.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Demands on superhydrophobic, self-cleaning and piezoelectric membranes have gained significantly due to their potential to overcome global shortages in clean water and energy. In this study, we have discovered a novel plasma-assisted nonsolvent induced phase separation (PANIPS) method to prepare superhydrophobic, self-cleaning and piezoelectric poly(vinylidene difluoride) (PVDF) membranes without additional chemical modifications or post-treatments. The PANIPS membranes exhibit water contact angles ranging from 151.2° to 166.4° and sliding angles between 6.7° and 29.7°. They also show a high piezoelectric coefficient (d33) of 10.5 pC N<sup>-1</sup> and can generate a high output voltage of 10 V<sub>pp</sub>. The PANIPS membranes can effectively recover pure water from various waste solutions containing Rose Bengal dye, humic acid, or sodium dodecyl sulfate via direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD). This study may provide valuable insights to fabricate PANIPS membranes and open up new avenues to molecularly design advanced superhydrophobic, self-cleaning, and piezoelectric membranes in the fields of clean water production, motion sensor, and piezoelectric nanogenerator.