Polyolefin based antibacterial membranes derived from PE/PEO blends compatibilized with amine terminated graphene oxide and maleated PE

Mural, Prasanna Kumar S and Banerjee, Aditi and Rana, Manish Singh and Shukla, Abhinaya and Padmanabhan, Babu and Bhadra, Sambhu and Madras, Giridhar and Bose, Suryasarathi (2014) Polyolefin based antibacterial membranes derived from PE/PEO blends compatibilized with amine terminated graphene oxide and maleated PE. In: JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY A, 2 (41). pp. 17635-17648.

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Abstract

In this study, various strategies like amine terminated GO (GO-NH2), in situ formed polyethylene grafted GO (PE-g-GO) and their combinations with maleated PE (maleic anhydride grafted PE) were adopted to reactively compatibilize blends of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and polyethylene oxide (PEO). These blends were further explored to design porous, antibacterial membranes for separation technology and the flux and the resistance across the membranes were studied systematically. It was observed that GO-NH2 led to uniform dispersion of PEO in a PE matrix and further resulted in a significant improvement in the mechanical properties of the blends when combined with maleated PE. The efficiency of various compatibilizers was further studied by monitoring the evolution of morphology as a function of the annealing time. It was observed that besides rendering uniform dispersion of PEO in PE and improving the mechanical properties, GO-NH2 further suppresses the coalescence in the blends. As the melt viscosities of the phases differ significantly, there is a gradient in the morphology as also manifested from scanning acoustic microscopy. Hence, the membranes were designed by systematically reducing the thickness of the as-pressed samples to expose the core as the active area for flux calculations. Selected membranes were also tested for their antibacterial properties by inoculating E. coli culture with the membranes and imaging at different time scales. This study opens new avenues to develop PE based cost effective anti-microbial membranes for water purification.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY A
Publisher:	ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY
Additional Information:	Copy right for this article belongs to the ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY, THOMAS GRAHAM HOUSE, SCIENCE PARK, MILTON RD, CAMBRIDGE CB4 0WF, CAMBS, ENGLAND
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Chemical Engineering Division of Mechanical Sciences > Materials Engineering (formerly Metallurgy) Division of Interdisciplinary Sciences > Centre for Nano Science and Engineering
Date Deposited:	28 Nov 2014 04:38
Last Modified:	28 Nov 2014 04:38
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/50324

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