Preparation of Microporous Polypropylene/Titanium Dioxide Composite Membranes with Enhanced Electrolyte Uptake Capability via Melt Extruding and Stretching

Polymers

Abdellah Ajji¹  Chuanxi Xiong²  Shan Wang²  Shaoyun Guo³ 

[1] CREPEC, Chemical Engineering Department, Ecole Polytechnique, Montreal, QC H3C 3A7, Canada;State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China;The State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Polymer Research Institute of Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China;

关键词: polypropylene;    microporous membrane;    titanium dioxide;    lamellar orientation;    stretching;    electrolyte uptake;   

DOI  :  10.3390/polym9030110

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

In this work, a blending strategy based on compounding the hydrophilic titanium dioxide (TiO2) particles with the host polypropylene (PP) pellets, followed by the common membrane manufacture process of melt extruding/annealing/stretching, was used to improve the polarity and thus electrolyte uptake capability of the PP-based microporous membranes. The influence of the TiO2 particles on the crystallinity and crystalline orientation of the PP matrix was studied using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and infrared dichroic methods. The results showed that the TiO2 incorporation has little influence on the oriented lamellar structure of the PP-based composite films. Investigations of the deformation behavior indicated that both the lamellar separation and interfacial debonding occurred when the PP/TiO2 composite films were subjected to uniaxial tensile stress. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observations verified that two forms of micropores were generated in the stretched PP/TiO2 composite membranes. Compared to the virgin PP membrane, the PP/TiO2 composite membranes especially at high TiO2 loadings showed significant improvements in terms of water vapor permeability, polarity, and electrolyte uptake capability. The electrolyte uptake of the PP/TiO2 composite membrane with 40 wt % TiO2 was 104%, which had almost doubled compared with that of the virgin PP membrane.

【 授权许可】

Unknown