Diffusion and permeability in polymeric barrier membranes with controlled microstructure

RODRIGO DEMOOR; JUAN PABLO TOMBA; MELISA GENGA; VERA ALVAREZ

Mar del Plata

Simposio; XVI Simposio Latinoamericano de Polímeros (SLAP 2018) y el XIV Congreso Iberoamericano de Polímeros (CIP 2018); 2018

Materials with gas/liquid barrier properties are highly demanded in technologies related with coatings, packaging or separation techniques. Polymers are widely used for this purpose due to their excellent cost/functionality ratio, but they have limited barrier properties to O2, water or organic compounds. It is well-known that the addition of few weight percent of nano-fillers like montmorillonite or graphene produces significant improvements on polymer permeability. The prediction of permeability in nanocomposites is highly desirable but certainly complex due to the variety of structural factors involved: filler aspect ratio (α), volume fraction (ϕ) or relative orientation (Θ).1 On the experimental side, it is difficult to produce samples with well-defined barrier geometry that allow to individually asses the influence of those factors on overall permeability.In this work, diffusion experiments in samples with well-defined barrier structures are presented. The experimental platform was designed to yield data that allow a rigorous verification of the state-of-art permeability models, with the aim of rationalizing the relative influence of α, ϕ or Θ on overall permeability