Super-hydrophobic PTFE hollow fiber membrane fabricated by electrospinning of Pullulan/PTFE emulsion for membrane deamination

Abstract Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is increasingly used in membrane applications due to its excellent thermal stability, resistance to chemical degradation and strong hydrophobicity. However, it is difficult to prepare high flux membranes by conventional technology due to its high melt viscosity and solvent resistance. Here, a environment-friendly technology is used to fabricate PTFE hollow fiber membrane via emulsion electrospinning. Pullulan is dope into the PTFE emulsion and employ as the binder of PTFE particles to facilitate the formation of the as-spun PTFE-Pullulan hollow fiber membrane. The expected PTFE hollow fiber membrane is obtained after sintering of the as-spun membrane. No organic solvent is used and no pollutant is discharged during the preparation process. The prepared PTFE hollow fiber membrane shows excellent properties such as superhydrophobicity (contact angle >150 °), high porosity (85%) and excellent mechanical properties (Young's modulus of 39 MPa and fracture strain of 245%). In the deamination test, the experimental mass transfer coefficient of the PTFE hollow fiber membrane reaches 2.4*10-5 m/s when the pH is 11, which is 1.6-2.4 times as that of the commercial membrane. The self-made PTFE hollow fiber membrane shows great potential in the application of membrane deamination.