Preparation and characterization of Fe3O4/PVDF magnetic composite membrane

Fe3O4 nanoparticles were introduced into microporous poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) membrane by in-situ membrane phase permeating method and a magnetic composite Fe3O4/PVDF membrane was prepared. Optimum preparation conditions were studied. FT-IR and DSC study indicates that the introducing of Fe3O4 did not affect the PVDF structure and the composite membranes show good thermo-stability. Fe3O4 particle size calculated from XRD result is about 68 nm. The susceptibility of the resulting composite membrane reached 0.044 cm(3) . g(-1) and changed with reaction conditions. The variations of pore size of the composite membrane were investigated by gas permeating method. The maximum and average pore size, as well as pore size distribution, of the composite membranes are different from those of PVDF host membrane, and changed obviously with preparing conditions.