Synthesis and characterization of a spun membrane with modified Al₂O₃

Abstract

In this work, composite nanofiber membranes were prepared by adding modified nano-sized Al2O3-particles to a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) solution (17 wt %) through an electrospinning process. The Al2O3 content affected the spun membrane performance, such as hydrophilicity, bovine serum albumin (BSA) rejection rate and anti-fouling properties were examined in detail. UF (experiment with an ultrafiltration cup) experiment was used to measure how the membrane water flux changed. This test showed that the nanoparticle affect was remarkable, the pure water flux was 4635 L•m−2•h−1 in 2% Al2O3/PVDF membrane versus 3546 L•m−2•h−1 for the membrane without nanoparticles. Contact angle was used to determine the hydrophilicity change of membranes. The results demonstrate that the modified membrane hydrophilicity was enhanced dramatically the contact angle of composite membrane with 2% Al2O3 was 56.34° versus 85.64° for the pristine PVDF membrane. The roughness and surface structure were measured by atomic force microscope (AFM) and electron microscopy (SEM). There were clear fibers in SEM images and the membrane surface roughness was heightened by adding nanoparticles. The rejection rate was investigated by UV spectrophotometer and the porosity was measured using a dry-wet weight method. The spun membrane rejection rate was 95.4%. Thermo gravimetric Analysis (TGA) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) were used to study how nano-Al2O3 particles affected the membrane structure. More importantly, the Al2O3/PVDF spun membrane displayed an outstanding anti-fouling property. To sum up, this composite spun membrane shows a remarkable efficiency in the test and could be an ideal candidate for water treatment.

Highly Conductive and Thermostable Grafted Polyrotaxane/Ceramic Hybrid Polymer Electrolyte for Solid-State Lithium-Metal Batteries

“…As shown in Figure j, peaks of APR and PR at 1177, 1074, and 834 cm –1 belong to the fluorine-containing groups . These abundant groups easily form hydrogen bonds with hydroxyl on the surface of Al 2 O 3 , which was confirmed by the peak shift of Al–O bonds from 595 cm –1 of Al 2 O 3 to 578 cm –1 of APR …”

“…To investigate the structure, the morphology of APR was observed. As shown in Figure 1b 37 To investigate the mechanical properties of APR, a tensile test was performed. As shown in Figure 2a and Figure S6, APR displayed a superhigh tensile strength of 17.12 MPa according to the curves, which increased by 27% than 13.44 MPa of PR and by 92% than 8.90 MPa of the commercial Celgard 2400 separator.…”

Membranes for Oil/Water Separation: A Review

“…[159] SiO 2, [160] ZnO, [161] CuO, [162] CNTs, [163] GO, [164] Al 2 O 3, [165] and Fe 3 O 4. [166] These nanoparticles can be used alone or dispersed in other materials such as polymeric membranes.…”

“…Nanoparticles have advantages such as reducing membrane fouling and improving membrane permeability and solute rejection. Various nanoparticles were used to introduce nanocomposite membrane in separation applications such as TiO 2, [ 159 ] SiO 2, [ 160 ] ZnO, [ 161 ] CuO, [ 162 ] CNTs, [ 163 ] GO, [ 164 ] Al 2 O 3, [ 165 ] and Fe 3 O 4. [ 166 ] These nanoparticles can be used alone or dispersed in other materials such as polymeric membranes.…”

Polymeric nanocomposite via electrospinning: Assessment of morphology, physical properties and applications

“…Nanostructured nanofibers have attention in nanotechnology and materials science areas. 1,2 Polymer and composite nanofibers have applications in membranes, energy devices, and biomedical. 3,4 The nanofibers have been fabricated using procedures including phase separation, precipitation, electrospinning, and self-assembly.…”