Effect of Swelling on Performance of Surface-Imprinted Composite Membranes

Molecularly imprinted composite membranes (MIMs) are developed by thermally initiated copolymerization on the surface of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) hollow fiber membranes for the selective binding to levofloxacin. The prepared membranes before and after surface polymerization are characterized by SEM and FT-IR. The water flux, swelling changes and selectivity of the membranes are evaluated. The highest specific separation factor of about 1.27 is achieved for MIMs to separate levofloxacin and ofloxacin. The results show that imprinted polymerization has obvious influence on the performance of membranes and swelling results in the decrease of specific recognition.