Water and oxygen permeation through transparent ethylene vinyl alcohol/(graphene oxide) membranes

Abstract

We prepared ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH)/graphene oxide (GO) membranes by solution casting method. X-ray diffraction analysis showed that GOs were fully exfoliated in the EVOH/GO membrane. The glass transition temperatures of EVOH were increased by adding GOs into EVOH. The melting temperatures of EVOH/GO composites were decreased by adding GOs into EVOH, indicating that GOs may inhibit the crystallization of EVOH during non-isothermal crystallization. However, the equilibrium melting temperatures of EVOH were not changed by adding GOs into EVOH. The oxygen permeability of the EVOH/GO (0.3 wt%) film was reduced to 63% of that of pure EVOH film, with 84% light transmittance at 550 nm. The EVOH/GO membranes exhibited 100 times better (water vapor)/(oxygen) selectivity performance than pure EVOH membrane.

A review of the water barrier properties of polymer/clay and polymer/graphene nanocomposites

“…For cyclic olefin/graphene nanocomposites, a 6ºC increase in T g was measured [102] and for a study on PVOH/graphene oxide an increase of 6ºC was observed [94]. However, for another paper on PVOH/GO [112] there was no shift in T g and neither was any reported for EVOH/GO [99].…”

“…In another study [99], the aspect ratio was calculated to be 350 from the Nielsen model. at a low graphene oxide content of only 0.001 wt.%, and then gradually further decreased as the filler content increased to 0.01 wt.%, as shown in Figure 6.…”

“…However, this can be a difficulty because some polymer/graphenebased films are opaque [72,74,94,95,104,118,119]. However, where there is very good dispersion of the graphene or graphene-oxide platelets, then highly transparent, high barrier films can be produced that have potential for use in electronic devices such as flexible electronic papers, OLEDs, flexible liquid crystal displays, organic solar cells and organic thin film transistors [97,99,100,102,122].…”

Recent Updates on the Barrier Properties of Ethylene Vinyl Alcohol Copolymer (EVOH): A Review

“…However, the addition of GO also decreased the transparency to 84% at a wavelength of 550 nm. [80] Kim and Cha (2014) revealed that the incorporation of inorganic planar-structured nanoclay MMT can lead to a dramatic decrease of both P O 2 at 23 C, 50% RH and water vapor permeability (P H 2 O ) at 40 C 90% RH: at 3 wt% the decrease was most prominent, respectively 59.4 and 90.1%. There was also an improvement in transparency and mechanical properties.…”

Efecto morfológico y térmico de filmes flexibles de etilen vinil alcohol reforzados con óxido de grafeno

“…Entre los polímeros más usados para este propósito tenemos el polímero termoplástico Etilen Vinil Alcohol (EVOH). El EVOH presenta una excelente resistencia química, así como una muy buena propiedad de barrera de gases como el oxígeno, solventes orgánicos y aromas de los alimentos, además de una muy buena transparencia [1][2][3].…”