Polyvinylidene fluoride-cellulose nanocrystals hybrid nanofiber membrane for energy harvesting and oil-water separation applications

In this communication, we report a smart membrane for both energy harvesting and oil/water separation application. The membrane was manufactured from polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) nanofiber blended with cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) as a sustainable material. A promising result in energy harvesting from the cyclic load effect and in oil/water separation was achieved. The developed membranes were characterized for their morphology, functional group, and surface properties using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and water contact angle (WCA), respectivley. The membrane shows piezoelectric response result about 3.5 V and 10 nA corresponding to PVDF membrane comparing to PVDF@CNCs membrane. However, in oil/water separation application, PVDF@CNCs shows higher water flux (85646.43 ml/m2.h) comparing to pristine PVDF membrane (73589.29 ml/m2.h). These resulted membranes are promising in oily wastewater separation and in the application of powering sensors that capable of measuring water quality after separation and treatment process.

Automated summary

This study introduces a smart membrane for energy harvesting and oil/water separation, showing promising results in both applications. Through characterization of the membrane's morphology, functional groups, and surface properties, it was found that the membrane exhibited good performance in energy harvesting and oil/water separation.