Hierarchically textured superhydrophobic polyvinylidene fluoride membrane fabricated via nanocasting for enhanced membrane distillation performance
Abstract(#br)The further advance of membrane distillation (MD) is hampered due to inadequate membrane durability challenged by wetting-induced performance deterioration. The current study presents a novel approach to fabrication of superhydrophobic polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes via construction of hierarchical textures on membrane surfaces based on a nanocasting strategy. Two types of PVDF membranes with different surface textures were prepared, separately using a stainless-steel mesh (SSM) or its negative polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) template as a fabrication substrate.