Development, fabrication, and characterization of composite polycaprolactone membranes reinforced with TiO2 nanoparticles

Abstract

This paper focuses on developing, fabricating, and characterizing composite polycaprolactone (PCL) membranes reinforced with titanium dioxide nanoparticles (NPs) elaborated by using two solvents; acetic acid and a mixture of chloroform and N, N-dimethylformamide (DMF). The resulting physical, chemical, and mechanical properties of the composite materials are studied by using experimental characterization techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) analysis, contact angle (CA), uniaxial and biaxial tensile tests, and surface roughness measurements. Experimental results show that the composite material synthesized by sol-gel and chloroform-DMF has a better performance than the one obtained by using acetic acid as a solvent.