Supercritical Phase Inversion to Produce Photocatalytic Active PVDF-coHFP_TiO<sub>2</sub> Composites for the Degradation of Sudan Blue II Dye

TiO<sub>2</sub>-loaded poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-coHFP) membranes were produced by supercritical CO<sub>2</sub>-assisted phase inversion. Three different TiO<sub>2</sub> loadings were tested: 10, 20, and 30 wt% with respect to the poly...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Mariangela Guastaferro, Lucia Baldino, Vincenzo Vaiano, Stefano Cardea, Ernesto Reverchon
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-12-01
Series:Materials
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/15/24/8894
Description
Summary:TiO<sub>2</sub>-loaded poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-coHFP) membranes were produced by supercritical CO<sub>2</sub>-assisted phase inversion. Three different TiO<sub>2</sub> loadings were tested: 10, 20, and 30 wt% with respect to the polymer. Increasing the TiO<sub>2</sub> amount from 10 wt% to 20 wt% in the starting solution, the transition from leafy-like to leafy-cellular morphology was observed in the section of the membrane. When 30 wt% TiO<sub>2</sub> was used, the entire membrane section showed agglomerates of TiO<sub>2</sub> nanoparticles. These polymeric membranes were tested to remove Sudan Blue II (SB) dye from aqueous solutions. The adsorption/photocatalytic processes revealed that membrane morphology and TiO<sub>2</sub> cluster size were the parameters that mainly affected the dye removal efficiency. Moreover, after five cycles of exposure of these membranes to UV light, SB removal was higher than 85%.
ISSN:1996-1944