Preparation of Nanofibrous Silver/Poly(vinylidene fluoride) Composite Membrane with Enhanced Infrared Extinction and Controllable Wetting Property

Nanofibrous silver (Ag)/poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) composite membranes were obtained from a two-step preparation method. In the first step, the electrospun silver nitrate (AgNO₃)/PVDF membranes were prepared and the influence of the AgNO₃ content on the electrospinning process was studied. According to scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results, when the electrospinning solution contained AgNO₃ in the range between 3 to 7 wt.%, the nanofiber morphologies can be obtained. In the second step, the electrospun AgNO₃/PVDF membranes were reduced by sodium borohydride to form the nanofibrous Ag/PVDF composite membranes. The resultant composite membranes were characterized by SEM, X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Fourier-transform infrared. The XRD, XPS, and EDS characterizations proved the existence of Ag in the nanofibrous Ag/PVDF composite membranes. The crystallinity degree of PVDF for composite membranes declined with the increase in Ag content. More importantly, the nanofibrous Ag/PVDF composite membranes had obviously higher Rosseland extinction coefficients and lower thermal radiative conductivities in comparison with electrospun PVDF membrane, which demonstrates that such composite membranes with high porosity, low density, and good water vapor permeability are promising thermal insulating materials to block the heat transfer resulting from thermal radiation. In addition, three different methods for surface modification have been used to successfully improve the hydrophobicity of nanofibrous Ag/PVDF composite membranes.