Supercritical Phase Inversion to Produce Photocatalytic Active PVDF-coHFP_TiO2 Composites for the Degradation of Sudan Blue II Dye

Mariangela Guastaferro; Lucia Baldino; Vincenzo Vaiano; Stefano Cardea; Ernesto Reverchon

doi:10.3390/ma15248894

Supercritical Phase Inversion to Produce Photocatalytic Active PVDF-coHFP_TiO₂ Composites for the Degradation of Sudan Blue II Dye

Materials (Basel). 2022 Dec 13;15(24):8894. doi: 10.3390/ma15248894.

Authors

Mariangela Guastaferro¹, Lucia Baldino^{1

2}, Vincenzo Vaiano¹, Stefano Cardea¹, Ernesto Reverchon^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II, 132, Fisciano, 84084 Salerno, Italy.
² C.U.G.RI., InterUniversity Research Center for the Prediction and Prevention of Major Hazards, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II, 132, Fisciano, 84084 Salerno, Italy.

Abstract

TiO₂-loaded poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-coHFP) membranes were produced by supercritical CO₂-assisted phase inversion. Three different TiO₂ loadings were tested: 10, 20, and 30 wt% with respect to the polymer. Increasing the TiO₂ amount from 10 wt% to 20 wt% in the starting solution, the transition from leafy-like to leafy-cellular morphology was observed in the section of the membrane. When 30 wt% TiO₂ was used, the entire membrane section showed agglomerates of TiO₂ nanoparticles. These polymeric membranes were tested to remove Sudan Blue II (SB) dye from aqueous solutions. The adsorption/photocatalytic processes revealed that membrane morphology and TiO₂ cluster size were the parameters that mainly affected the dye removal efficiency. Moreover, after five cycles of exposure of these membranes to UV light, SB removal was higher than 85%.

Keywords: Sudan Blue II dye; TiO2 nanoparticles; photocatalysis; poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) membranes; supercritical CO2 assisted phase inversion.

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.