The intrinsic hydrophobicity of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane impedes its application in the field of water treatment. In this work, hydrophilic modification of PVDF membrane is processed by a mussel-inspired method. Multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were functionalized by grafting 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) firstly, and then they were directly decorated on PVDF membrane surface by dopamine copolymerizes. Energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX) mapping results exhibited that functionalized MWCNTs were well dispersed in the membrane matrix. The novel membranes turned from a hydrophobic state to superhydrophilic state (completely wetted in air within only 1 s). Besides, these provide modified membranes could be applied to separate different kinds of oil-in water emulsions with high permeate flux (about 900 L/m(2) h under 0.09 MPa) and ultrahigh oil rejection ratio (nearly 99%). More importantly, the as-prepared superhydrophilic PVDF membranes showed durable oil-fouling repellency, which could be easily recycled with a recovery of flux ratio up to 90%. In general, this bio-inspired modification might provide a new method for the preparation of superhydrophilic PVDF membrane and be very promising for application on oil/water emulsion separation. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.