Abstract
The effect of two different fillers such as (a) reduced graphene oxide (RGO) produced by the reduction of graphene oxide (GO) using potato starch and (b) zinc oxide decorated graphene oxide (ZnO-RGO) on the water transport properties of phenol formaldehyde (PF) nanocomposites have been investigated at different temperatures. The effect of filler content, nature of filler and temperature on the water sorption of the PF nanocomposites were also studied. The results showed that the RGO content facilitates water uptake while ZnO-RGO filler impedes the water sorption properties of various nanocomposites developed. The diffusion, sorption and permeability coefficient of PF nanocomposites with varying weight percentage of filler at different temperatures were determined. The effect of temperature on the water sorption of PF nanocomposites was studied by determining the activation energy using Arrhenius equation. The thermodynamic studies revealed that the water sorption was spontaneous due to the negative value of ∆Go and the reaction was exothermic because of the negative value of ∆H. The kinetic studies showed that the water sorption of the PF nanocomposites follows a first order reaction.
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