Abstract
The effect of changes in non-solvent coagulation bath temperature on surface properties such as morphology and hydrophilicity were investigated in multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and graphene oxide (GO)-based polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes. The properties of pores (size, shape, and number) as well as membrane hydrophilicity were investigated using field emission scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, optical microscopy, water contact angle, and water flux. Results showed that the pore size increased with an increase in coagulation temperature. The hydrophilic functional groups of the added carbon materials increased the solvent and non-solvent diffusion rate, which significantly increased the number of pores by 700% as compared to pure PVDF. Additionally, these functional groups changed the hydrophobic properties of pure PVDF into hydrophilic properties.
Highlights
Separating membranes are widely used in various water treatment studies owing to their high treatment efficiency in a single process and their ability to reliably remove suspended substances over a certain size [1,2,3,4]
multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were well distributed in the polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane
The Raman spectra indicated that the graphene oxide (GO) and MWCNTs were well distributed in the PVDF membrane
Summary
Separating membranes are widely used in various water treatment studies owing to their high treatment efficiency in a single process and their ability to reliably remove suspended substances over a certain size [1,2,3,4]. PVDF is a fluorine-based polymer material which exhibits high thermal stability, good chemical resistance, and excellent mechanical strength; it is widely used in the water treatment field [15] It exhibits strong hydrophobicity and low surface energy. The filtration performance of the PVDF membrane can be determined by surface characteristics such as permeability, size, shape, and the number of pores These properties are affected by the materials. We added GO and MWCNTs to a pure PVDF membrane to investigate the effects of distributed carbon nanomaterials on the membrane properties while changing the coagulation bath temperature using optical microscopy, water contact angle measurement, Raman spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and water flux measurement. The increased coagulation bath temperature accelerated the rate of phase conversion and diffusion rate of the solvent and non-solvent
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