Abstract
In this study, polyvinylidene fluoride with an additive of nanozeolite (PVDF/NZ) membranes were prepared, characterized and evaluated. The concentrations of the nanozeolite incorporated into PVDF were varied from 0.25%, 0.50% and 0.75 % with N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) as solvent and the corresponding effects of nanozeolite on the polymer matrix were investigated in terms of performance and properties. There are two methods in preparing the membranes, namely: Non-solvent Induced Phase Separation (NIPS) and electrospinning. The hydrophobicity of the membranes was characterized by contact angle, the surface morphology using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and the mechanical properties by Universal Testing Machine (UTM). The presence of organic and inorganic matter was investigated using Fourier-Transform Infrared (FTIR). The SEM images of both fabricated nanocomposite membranes showed that after the addition of nanozeolite particles into PVDF matrix has affected the surface morphology, flat-sheet resulted decreasing in porous and electrospun resulted less beads and increasing fiber diameter after adding an extra amount of nanozeolite. The chemical bond or molecular structure of flat-sheet and electrospun membranes obtained same functional groups, however the electrospun resulted a high absorption of alkanes. The contact angle of both nanocomposite fabricated membranes exhibited an increasing contact angle, yet the PVDF/0.75NZ of electrospun membrane obtained higher hydrophobic surface compared to others. The result of UTM showed that on flat-sheet, the tensile strength was obtained by pure PVDF membrane while the PVDF/0.25NZ of electrospun membrane was able to achieve an optimum tensile strength. In fact, the tensile strength via NIPS need to be improved.
Highlights
Polymers are widely used as advanced materials, which are found almost in every material used in our daily life
This study aims to determine and compare which fabricated membrane is efficient in terms of surface morphology, tensile strength and interaction of water into surface of membrane
The Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)-NZ/NMP solution was prepared by varying the concentration of PVDF and nanozeolite and constant number for NMP with the ratio of 21:0:79, 20.75:0.25:79, 20.50:0.5:79 and 20.25:0.75:79.The performed experiment was done in the fume hood
Summary
As shown in the fig. 1 and fig. 2, the pure PVDF formed spherulite-structure with few pinholes, after adding 0.25% of nanozeolite the surface tended to form spongy-like structure, the spherulite-structure tended to be smothered with very few porous on the surface upon adding PVDF/0.50NZ and reduced in porous after the presence of 0.75% of nanozeolite in membrane.The results shown that after adding nanozeolite into polymer solution, the porous tend to form due to the higher viscosity of the solution. The pure PVDF formed spherulite-structure with few pinholes, after adding 0.25% of nanozeolite the surface tended to form spongy-like structure, the spherulite-structure tended to be smothered with very few porous on the surface upon adding PVDF/0.50NZ and reduced in porous after the presence of 0.75% of nanozeolite in membrane.The results shown that after adding nanozeolite into polymer solution, the porous tend to form due to the higher viscosity of the solution. Agglomeration of particle could happen wherein the porous would tend to diminish and became smother upon adding excessive amount of nanozeolite.From the cross- sectional view in figure 2,asymmetrical spongy-like structure with fingerlike at bottom is formed after adding 0.25% of nanozeolite, the finger-like formed would become longer after adding 0.75% of nanozeolite.as increasing the amount of nanozeolite and decreasing the amount of PVDF, the voids tend to appear which can increase the porous in (d). Micrograph of surface Micrograph of surface view flat-sheet view flat-sheet membranes at 5000x membranes at 10000x magnification (a) pure magnification (a) pure
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