Abstract
This review particularly discusses current development of PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride)-based membrane technology for wastewater purification in terms of the potentiality, various fabrication techniques and specific fouling mitigation. Firstly, membrane technology for treating industrial wastewater and other polluted water is presented properly. In this section, essential aspects in membrane technology such as membrane usage in wastewater treatment field, fouling phenomena, fouling characteristics, and its mechanism would be explained. The second part then includes PVDF polymer, the utilization of conventional and green solvents used in membrane fabrication process as well as prominent methods available for fabricating PVDF-based membranes. Ultimately, the last section critically covers fouling mitigation efforts covering two prominent strategies namely additive blending and surface coating using novel substances as reported in current literature. Although some research related to the preparation of membrane materials has existed in the literature, there are still several challenging issues that need to be critically discussed deeper for establishing a reliable PVDF-based membrane and modifying the membrane for obtaining better properties of permeate flux, selectivity and anti-fouling leading to better membrane performance for purifying industrial wastewater containing high concentration of recalcitrant organic and inorganic pollutants. Overall, this review will considerately contribute to understand membrane fabrication and current surface modification as part of possible dependable loopholes for reducing fouling rate especially on PVDF-based membranes, and it will be a strong foundation for future research regarding the fabrication of polymeric membrane derived from PVDF having better durability and antifouling property.