Fabrication of new type of barium ferrite/copper oxide composite nanoparticles blended polyvinylchloride based heterogeneous ion exchange membrane

The current study focuses on the electrochemical, morphological and antibacterial characteristics of a new type of polyvinylchloride based cation exchange membrane modified by BaFe12O19/CuO composite nanoparticles. The used BaFe12O19/CuO composite nanoparticles were synthesized by chemical precipitation technique. The formation of BaFe12O19/CuO was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). SEM and scanning optical microscopy (SOM) images also showed relatively uniform structure for the prepared membranes. The membrane water uptake was enhanced up to 14.5% in presence of BaFe12O19/CuO composite nanoparticles. The membrane ion exchange capacity, membrane potential, transport number, surface charge density, permselectivity and ion permeability/flux were also improved sharply by increase of additive concentration up to 2 wt% and then showed decreasing trend by more BaFe12O19/CuO content ratio from 2 to 8 wt%. The membrane areal electrical resistance were decreased significantly from ∼24 to ∼5 (Ω cm2) by using of BaFe12O19/CuO nanoparticles. Moreover, modified membranes demonstrated good ability to removal of E-coli bacteria. Keywords: Cation exchange membrane, BaFe12O19/CuO nanoparticles, Chemical precipitation, Electrochemical properties, Antibacterial characteristic