Data from: Surface modification of poly(vinylidene fluoride) hollow fibre membranes for biogas purification in a gas-liquid membrane contactor system

The wetting of hollow fiber membranes decreases performance of the liquid-gas membrane contactor for CO2 capture in biogas upgrading. To solve this problem, in this work, a poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) hollow fibre membrane for a liquid-gas membrane contactor was coated with a superhydrophobic layer composed of a combination of hydrophobic SiO2 nanoparticles and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) by the method of spray deposition. A rough layer of SiO2 deposited on the PVDF membrane resulted in an enhanced surface hydrophobicity. The surface structure of the pristine PVDF significantly affected the homogeneity of the generated SiO2 layer. A uniform surface coating on the PVDF upper layer resulted from the presence of micrometre and nanometre sized roughness on the surface of the PVDF membrane, which was achieved with a SiO2 concentration of 4.44 mg ml-1 (0.2 g/45 ml) in the coating solution. As a result, the water contact angle of the modified surface was recorded as 155±3°, which is higher than that of the pristine surface. The high contact angle is advantageous for reducing the wetting of the membrane. Additional mass transfer resistance was introduced by the superhydrophobic layer. In addition, continuous CO2 absorption tests were carried out in original and modified PVDF hollow fibre membrane contactors, using monoethanolamine (MEA) solution as the absorbent. A long-term stability test revealed the modified PVDF hollow fibre membrane contactor was able to outperform the original membrane contactor and demonstrated outstanding long-term stability, suggesting that spray deposition is a promising approach to obtain superhydrophobic PVDF membranes for liquid-gas membrane absorption.中空纤维膜的润湿现象会降低用于沼气提质中二氧化碳捕集的气液膜接触器的性能。为解决该问题，本研究采用喷雾沉积法，将由疏水二氧化硅（SiO₂）纳米颗粒与聚二甲基硅氧烷（PDMS）复合而成的超疏水层涂覆于用于气液膜接触器的聚偏氟乙烯（PVDF）中空纤维膜表面。沉积于PVDF膜表面的二氧化硅粗糙层可提升膜表面的疏水性能。原始PVDF膜的表面结构对所生成的二氧化硅涂层的均匀性具有显著影响。当涂布液中二氧化硅浓度为4.44 mg·ml⁻¹（0.2 g/45 ml）时，PVDF膜表面存在微米与纳米级粗糙度，可使PVDF表层获得均匀的表面涂层。经改性后的膜表面水接触角可达155±3°，高于原始膜表面的水接触角。较高的水接触角有利于降低膜的润湿现象。但该超疏水层会引入额外的传质阻力。此外，本研究以单乙醇胺（MEA）溶液为吸收剂，分别在原始与改性PVDF中空纤维膜接触器中开展了连续式二氧化碳吸收实验。长期稳定性测试结果表明，改性PVDF中空纤维膜接触器的性能优于原始膜接触器，且展现出优异的长期稳定性，这说明喷雾沉积法是制备用于气液膜吸收过程的超疏水PVDF膜的可行途径。