Fabrication and characterisation of novel nanofiltration polymeric membrane

Abstract

A novel composite membrane was obtained by combining the products of ion-tracking and electrospinning processes. Swift heavy ions generated from a cyclotron were used to irradiate polyethylene terephthalate (PET) polymer film of thickness 23 µm to create latent tracks which were then chemically etched in an alkaline solution, to produce track-etched membrane. Magnetron sputtering was then used to deposite titanium (Ti) on the membrane to produce PET-TM with Ti thickness of ˜45 nm. Polyamide 6 nanofibres (PA6-nfs) or polyacrylonitrile nanofibres (PAN-nfs) were directly electrospun upon the Ti coated PET-TM using an electrospinning process. The average fibre diameter of PA6-nfs or PAN-nfs was 52 ± 9.8 nm or 354 ± 40 nm, respectively. The track-etched membrane, the nanofibres and the novel composite membrane were characterised using SEM, TEM, TGA, ATR-FTIR and adsorption/desorption of nitrogen techniques. The results confirmed the fabrication of nanofibre coated track-etched composite membrane.