In this study, PVDF was dehydrofluorinated using an alkaline treatment and modified using 4-vinyl benzyl chloride to prepare a PVDF-g-VBC copolymer. A solution of the PVDF-g-VBC copolymer was anion exchanged to introduce a quaternary ammonium group using a quaternary ammonium reaction. In addition, an ion exchange membrane was prepared using a casting method, and a PVDF-g-VBC ion exchange membrane was made by heat treatment. Raman and Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy were performed to elucidate the molecular structure. The water uptake (W.U), ion exchange capacity (IEC) and electrical resistance (E.R) of the membrane were measured using a weight method, titration, and LCR meter, respectively. The water uptake of the PVDF-g-VBC ion exchange membrane ranged from 12.5% to 56.2%, and the results were lower than that of AMX (Tokuyama) (30%). The ion exchange capacity and electrical resistance range were 039-1.31 meq/g and from 15.50 to 2.00 Omega cm(2), respectively. The electrical resistance was observed to decrease as the ion exchange capacity increased. The lowest electrical resistance measured, 2.00 Omega cm(2), is lower than that of an AMX membrane (2.40 Omega cm(2)). When the anion exchange membrane was applied to the membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI) process, an excellent salt removal rate of 79.4% was achieved, which was 51.6% higher than when the membrane was applied in the capacitive deionization (CDI) process, 27.8%. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.