Polyvinylidene Fluoride / Cellulose Nanocrystals Nanofiber Membrane for Energy Harvesting and Oil Water Separation Applications

Abstract In this communication, we report smart membrane for both energy harvesting and oil/water separation. The membrane was manufactured from polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) nanofiber blended with cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) as a sustainable material. A promising result in energy harvesting from the cyclic load effect and in oil/water separation was achieved. The developed membranes were characterized for their morphology, functional group, and surface properties using Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and water contact angle (WCA). The membrane shows piezo response result about 3.5V and 10 nA corresponding to PVDF membrane comparing to PVDF@CNCs membrane. However, in oil/water separation application, PVDF@CNCs shows higher water flux (85646.43 ml/m2.h) comparing to pristine PVDF membrane (73589.29 ml/m2.h). These resulted membranes are promising in oily wastewater separation and in the application of powering sensors that capable of measuring water quality after separation and treatment process.