PVDF-based membranes in biotechnology

The use of piezoelectricity in biotechnology (specifically in tissue engineering and bioseparations) can promote different improvements in the outcome, and in that field, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and its derivatives are the polymers with the largest piezoelectric coefficient. This review discusses the possibilities of PVDF-based membranes in tissue engineering and bioseparations. The development of PVDF-based materials can increase cell adhesion, proliferation and differentiation in different areas of tissue engineering, being their biodegradability and their hydrophilicity the main concerns, although the entrapment of different materials can improve these properties. Moreover, the polymer must be carefully chosen depending on the targeted issue due to the differences in cell geometries. Concerning bioseparations, PVDF membranes can be used to separate proteins, compounds in microalgae culture or different peptides as well as the purification of monoclonal antibodies. However, more research must be performed in this field to take advantage of the piezoelectric effect of these membranes (considered mainly for electrophoresis) for large scale applications and to determine the impact of using PVDF copolymers to separate hydrophobic compounds.