Preparation and characterization of polyvinyl chloride based nickel phosphate ion selective membrane and its application for removal of ions through water bodies

Abstract

Polyvinyl chloride based nickel phosphate (PVC–NP) composite membrane was prepared by cast die method of membrane fabrication. The nickel phosphate (NP) inorganic material has been prepared by the novel sol-gel method which is qualitative method of material synthesis. The composite membrane has been designed by a uniform mixing of the NP and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) materials into 1:3 ratio of percentage. This novel PVC supported NP composite membrane is used as a barrier for transporting the electrolytes and heavy metal ions due their charge characteristic. By this nature composite membrane governs to adsorb and absorb characteristics of cations and anions present in water body. The structural, thermal and electrochemical characterizations were done by using different sophisticated techniques like FTIR, XRD, TGA/DTA as well as SEM-EDX, LCR and potentiometer. The characterizations of material as well as membrane indicated the information of functional groups, material nature, thermal stability, surface structure, porosity, elemental percentages, dielectric nature, ionic transportation etc. Teorell-Meyer-Sievers (TMS) theoretical method is used to determine the charge density of membrane which is an important theory to analyze the performance of designed membrane. The other important parameters of membrane can also be determined very easily by the help of calculated values of membrane charge densities.