PES/SiO₂ nanocomposite by in situ polymerization: Synthesis, structure, properties, and new applications

Abstract

SiO2 nanoparticles of a quantum size (15 nm or less) were prepared via sol–gel method using tetraethylorthosilicate as a precursor. SiO2 nanoparticles were characterized by X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and field‐emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) analyses. Polyethersulfone/silica (PES/SiO2) crystal structure nanocomposite was prepared by in situ polymerization using silica nanoparticles as reinforcement filler. The polymerization reaction was done at 160°C in paraffin bath in the presence of diphenolic monomers. XRD and FESEM analyses were used to study the morphology of the synthesized nanocomposite. The purity and thermal property of the PES/SiO2 nanocomposite were studied by energy dispersion of X‐ray analysis and differential scanning calorimetry, respectively. The effect of silica particles on the hydrophilicity of PES/SiO2 nanocomposite was also investigated. It was showed that the PES/SiO2 nanocomposite had a higher swelling degree when compared with the pure PES. The synthesized PES/SiO2 powder was used to remove Cu(II) ions from its aqueous solution. The effect of experimental conditions such as pH, shaking time, and sorbent mass on adsorption capacity of PES/SiO2 nanocomposite were investigated. It was found that incorporation of a low amount of silica (2 wt%) into the polymer matrix caused the increase of the Cu(II) ions adsorption capacity of PES. POLYM. COMPOS., 2012. © 2012 Society of Plastics Engineers

Surface modification of SiO2 nanoparticles and its impact on the properties of PES-based hollow fiber membrane

“…30 The T g in membrane is affected by region of free volume and chain mobility existed between the nanoparticles and polymer molecules due to the attractive or repulsive interaction. This result is in agreement with Shariatmadar et al 32 in which they also found that the addition of SiO 2 nanoparticles in the PES matrix could increase the thermal resistance of the membranes. 31 Table 2 shows the DSC results for the membranes incorporated with different concentration of modied SiO 2 .…”

Multiscale modeling of interface debonding effect on mechanical properties of nanocomposites

“…Nano-reinforced polymers have had increasing interest from the research community over the past decade [1][2][3]. A nanocomposite is a category of composites with a reinforcing phase consisting of inclusions with at least one nano-sized dimension [4][5][6][7]. The use of a small amount of nanostructured reinforcements in polymers has the potential to improve the mechanical and physical properties relative to traditional reinforcements [8][9][10][11][12], among which glass and carbon fibers are the most common materials [13][14][15][16].…”

A novel route to the engineering of zirconium immobilized nano-scale carbon for arsenate removal from water

“…Recently, various mesoporous and nano-adsorbents are used for water treatment. [1][2][3][4][5] There have been increasing demands for the application of novel carbonaceous materials in water treatment due to their low cost and high efficiency. Several methods have been used for the preparation of synthetic carbons, such as carbonization, electro-spinning, laser ablation and hydrothermal carbonization.…”