investigation of pebax /ZIF-8mixed matrix membrane preparation method on final morphology

The combination of metal organic frameworks (MOFs) and polymers in the form of mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) has become an increasingly important field of research over the last few years. Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are new class of crystalline porous materials which are formed from metal containing nodes and organic bridges.ZIF-8, which is a subclass of MOFs, exhibits the sodalite topology, is composed of zinc (II) ion clusters linked by imidazolate ligands. Dense membrane was prepared by solvent evaporation method with Pebax® as base polymer and zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) as porous filler material with 20 w/w%. MMM has been developed by tuning the membrane preparation process in this work. Using ultrasonic bath before membrane casting resulted in a homogeneous distribution of the ZIF-8 nanocrystal in Pebax® matrix, as confirmed by Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Before using ultrasonic bath the prepared membrane has a grape-like morphology. With this method agglomeration of nanoparticles omitted

Keywords:

Mixed matrix membrane , ZIF-8 , Pebax® , preparation process