Polyvinylidene fluoride phase design by two-dimensional boron nitride enables enhanced performance and stability for seawater desalination

Abstract The instability of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes in membrane distillation (MD) for seawater desalination is still a problem, despite the tremendous effort expended to resolve this issue. Here, a simple and feasible approach for improving desalination performance through the incorporation of two-dimensional boron nitride nanosheets (BNNSs) in polyvinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropene (PVDF-co-HFP) electrospun nanofiber membrane (BNs-PH) is proposed as well as demonstrate its origin for fundamental understanding. The BNs-PH membrane exhibits a stable water vapor flux (18 LMH) and superior salt rejection (99.99%), even after operation for 280 h (commercial PVDF: steep decay within 28 h; neat PH: wetting within 4 h). From structural/chemical analyses, the BNNSs play a crucial role in forming favorable phases of the PH polymer crystal structure, inducing a superhydrophobic surface with greater nanoporosity and higher heterogeneity as well as enhanced mechanical properties (increase of UTS: 13.4%; modulus: 1.2%) for long-term operation. Theoretical modeling results of an air-gap MD system are consistent with our experimental results. The approach introduced in this study can be applied to other desalination systems to boost various water treatment applications.