DESALINATION MEMBRANES

Polymer-based membranes and methods for fabricating membranes are described. The methods include forming a casting solution featuring a plurality of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles, a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)-based solvent, and a polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)-based modifying agent, dispersing the casting solution to form a first element, generating a plurality of active sites on a surface of the first element, and forming a polymer-based membrane by exposing the surface of the first element to a fluorosilane composition to form a fluorosilane layer on the surface, where the fluorosilane composition includes a silane compound having at least one alkyl substituent that includes between 9 and 21 fluorine atoms.