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Updated: Dec 20, 2025

Fabricating Superhydrophobic Polymeric Materials for Biomedical Applications
Published on: August 28, 2015
Enhanced Hydrophilic and Electrophilic Properties of Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Biofilm Carrier
Haifeng Cai1, Yang Wang1, Kai Wu1
1Polymer Processing Laboratory, Key Laboratory for Preparation and Application of Ultrafine Materials of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China.
Abstract:
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) biofilm carrier is used as a carrier for bacterial adsorption in wastewater treatment. The hydrophilicity and electrophilicity of its surface play an important role in the adsorption of bacteria. The PVC biofilm carrier was prepared by extruder, and its surface properties were investigated. In order to improve the hydrophilicity and electrophilic properties of the PVC biofilm carrier, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and cationic polyacrylamide (cPAM) were incorporated into polyvinyl chloride (PVC) by blending. Besides, the surface area of the PVC biofilm carrier was increased by azodicarbonamide modified with 10% by weight of zinc oxide (mAC). The surface contact angle of PVC applied by PVA and cPAM at 5 wt %, 15 wt % was 81.6°, which was 18.0% lower than pure PVC. It shows the significant improvement of the hydrophilicity of PVC. The zeta potential of pure PVC was -9.59 mV, while the modified PVC was 14.6 mV, which proves that the surface charge of PVC changed from negative to positive. Positive charge is more conducive to the adsorption of bacteria. It is obvious from the scanning electron microscope (SEM) images that holes appeared on the surface of the PVC biofilm carrier after adding mAC, which indicates the increase of PVC surface area.
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