PREPARATION AND CHARACTERISATION OF POLYMER MEMBRANES ENHANCED WITH MEDICINAL PLANT EXTRACT.

This paper reports the preparation of novel polymer membranes by phase inversion at room temperature (25 °C), using acrylonitrile, acrylic acid, dimethyl sulfoxide and small amount of medicinal plant extract. We investigated the structure of the resulting membranes through Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and SEM microscopy. Also was determined the water content. FTIR-ATR spectra show that the peak at 1723 cm^-1 shifted to lower wave number when medicinal plant extract (1715 cm^-1) is added in the polymer matrix, indicated that the medicinal plant extract was successfully incorporated into the membrane matrix. SEM image reveal that the medicinal plant extract incorporated in membrane matrix reduced the amount of fissures and cracks and were distributed relatively uniform. Water content values of the prepared membranes are relatively high probably due to the immobilization of acrylonitrile and acrylic acid in polymer matrix. The small increase of water content can be due to the small amount of medicinal plant extract incorporated into the polymer membrane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]