(Stefano Cardea) Phone Number: +39089969365; msarno@unisa.it (Maria Sarno) Phone Number: +39089964057.KEYWORDS: Graphene oxide, Cellulose acetate, Nanocomposite, Supercritical CO 2 .
ABSTRACTCellulose acetate (CA)/graphene oxide (GO) nanocomposite membranes were generated by an assisted phase inversion process, based on the use of SC-CO 2 as non-solvent, operating at 200 bar and 40 °C; loadings of GO up to 9% w/w were tested. The structures maintained the cellular morphology, characteristics of CA membranes, also at the highest GO loadings used, with a porosity of about 80%, but the presence of GO influenced the pore sizes, that ranged between about 9 and 16 µm. The starting GO and the nanocomposite structures were characterized by the combination of various techniques that evidences as Sulphur and Chlorinated impurities, that were present in the starting GO material, were completely eliminated by the interaction with SC-CO 2 during structures formation; moreover, a partial reduction of GO to graphene was also observed. . Compared to graphene, GO is heavily oxygenated and its basal plane carbon atoms are decorated with epoxide and hydroxyl groups and its edge atoms with carbonyl and carboxyl groups. Hence, GO is highly hydrophilic and the presence of these functional groups reduces interplanar forces, which can improve the interfacial interaction between GO and some polymers and, thus, the dispersion of GO in polymer matrices 2,3 . Many factors can affect the final properties and applications of GO/polymer nanocomposites 4 , among these: kind of GO used, its dispersion state in the polymeric matrix and interfacial interactions, the amount of wrinkling, its network structure in the matrix and its purity.Various attempts have been proposed in the literature to realize GO/polymers composite structures [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] . The processes proposed until now (i.e., phase inversion, casting, electrospinning) present several limitations; for example, residues of organic solvents of GO synthesis are typically found at the end of these processes, causing problems, in particular, for biomedical applications. Moreover, a homogeneous distribution of GO in the polymeric matrix is difficult to obtain, since the cohesive forces among GO layers tend to produce restacking. GO composites performance is strongly related to its level of exfoliation (i.e., separation of the layers). Exfoliated GO allows the largest interfacial contact with the polymer matrix, improving the properties of the composites. For this reason, several techniques have been implemented to increase the GO exfoliation degree. In particular, solvent-based exfoliation and thermal exfoliation techniques emerged as two preferred routes for this step [16][17][18][19] . [30][31][32][33] . Due to molecular size of CO 2 and its polarizability, it has the potential to pass through the solid porous layers 34 and, when supercritical conditions are reached, CO 2 diffusivity can favor layers expansion and exfoliation [31][32][33] . It is also possible to...