Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane with its excellent mechanical and chemical properties is widely used in the field of water treatment. During the long-term operation

the permeation flux of PVDF membrane will significantly decrease due to its strong hydrophobicity and the absorption of organic matters. Therefore

frequent backwashing and chemical cleaning are necessary. This will lead to the decline of mechanical properties of PVDF membrane itself. The operation life of membrane would be reduced with a large increasing of operating costs. Thus

it is very important for the investigation on hydrophilic modification of PVDF membrane. In this paper

the classification of hydrophilic modification method was introduced

and then the details of various modification methods and the present research were well described. Finally

some problems deserving further research and the application prospects of PVDF hydrophilic modified membrane were presented.