Abstrait

Water and fat absorption studies of Polyvinyl alcohol-Chitosan-Boron nitride hybrid nanocomposites with enhanced thermal properties

Varun Katyal, Anil Kumar

PVA(Polyvinyl alcohol) based nanocomposite membraneswere fabricated, these compositemembranes reinforced with chitosan and boron nitride nanosheets via freeze-thaw method, no crosslinking agent such as glutaraldehyde was used in the synthesis process. Swelling, fat absorption and thermal degradation studies were carried out. PVA membranes showed the highest swelling (water uptake) and PVA-Chitosan membranes exhibited the highest fat absorption, while PVA-Boron nitride nanocomposites showed least degradation in water. Scanning electronmicroscopy, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were done to analyse the membrane morphology and properties. FT-IR analysis revealed that good bonding was achieved between the two polymericmaterials. TGAanalysis revealed that there is significant increase in the thermal properties of the membranes with addition of BNNS without significant deterioration of water uptake or fat absorption performance.