Effects of inorganic additive of two-dimensional hexagonal boron nitride on the gas separation/permeation for PVDF-derived membranes

ABSTRACT

Use of inorganic additives in membrane development has been widely employed to improve the performance of polymer membranes. Inorganic additive like hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) was incorporated in polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) to prepare PVDF/h-BN composite membranes. Obtained membranes were characterized using thermogravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy. The objective was to study the effect of different wt. % of h-BN (0.35, 0.45 and 0.55 wt.%) on single gas (CO₂ and CH₄) transport properties of the composite membrane. The highest permeabilities of 4.30559 × 10⁵ and 3.19250 × 10⁵ Barrer, for CO₂ and CH₄, respectively, were achieved using PVDF/h-BN (0.55 wt. %) composite membrane.

KEYWORDS:

• Hexagonal-boron nitride
• composite membranes
• gas permeability
• PVDF
• carbon dioxide
• methane

Acknowledgment

The authors acknowledge the Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facility (SAIF), IIT Bombay (India) and FIST (Physics)–IRCC SPM Central Facility of IIT Bombay for providing characterization facilities.