Abstract: A method of making a porous polymeric material by heating a mixture comprising polyvinylidene fluoride and a solvent system initially comprising a first component that is a latent solvent for polyvinylidene fluoride and a second component that is a non-solvent for polyvinylidene fluoride wherein, at elevated temperature, polyvinylidene fluoride dissolves in the solvent system to provide an optically clear solution. The solution is then rapidly cooled so that non-equilibrium liquid-liquid phase separation takes place to form a continuous polymer rich phase and a continuous polymer lean phase with the two phases being intermingled in the form of bicontinuous matrix of large interfacial area, and cooling is continued until the polymer rich phase solidifies. The polymer lean phase is removed from the solid polymeric material.