Abstract
Polymeric membrane is a proven technology for water purification and wastewater treatment. The membrane is also commercialized for gas separation, mainly for carbon dioxide removal and hydrogen recovery. Characterization techniques are excellent tools for exploring the membrane structure and the chemical properties. This information can be then optimized to improve the membrane for better performance. In this paper, characterization techniques for studying the physical structure such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) are discussed. Techniques for investigating the crystal structure such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), and wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) are also considered. Other tools for determining the functional groups such Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) are reviewed. Methods for determining the elemental composition such as energy-dispersion X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray fluorescent (XRF), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) are explored. The paper also gives general guidelines for sample preparation and data interpretation for each characterization technique.
Highlights
Characterization is an important field in material science
transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is widely used over scanning electron microscopy (SEM) especially for analyzing mixed-matrix membranes made by adding nanoparticles to the polymer
Mixed-matrix membranes can overcome this limitation by adding fillers of Amorphous and glassy structures can be distinguished in X-ray diffraction (XRD) by observing the peak shape another[62]
Summary
Characterization is an important field in material science It refers to determining the physical and chemical properties of the material for a better understanding. Intensive research is carried out on preparing membranes from different materials to overcome the limitation in polymeric membranes. The techniques usually study the morphology data, crystal structure, functional groups, and chemical composition. For studying the crystal structure and its shape and size, X-ray diffraction (XRD) is classically applied Techniques such as small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) can provide crystallography data with added information about the particle size and pore size distribution. For measuring fluorescent (XRF), and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) are commonly employed The paper gives general guidelines for interpreting the data for polymeric
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