Browsing by Author "Aguirre Sanmartin, Pedro Xavier"

Filter results by typing the first few letters
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Elaboración de membranas poliméricas a base polietilenotereftalato (PET) reciclado con nanotubos de carbono mediante electrohilado
    (Universidad de Cuenca, 2025-09-01) Aguirre Sanmartin, Pedro Xavier; Vera Cabezas, Luisa Mayra
    One of the problems faced by the scientific community is plastic pollution, as plastics have the potential to cause significant harm to the environment and human health. Therefore, it is important to add value to them through recycling. In this work, three polyethylene terephthalate (PET) membranes were created using the electrospinning technique. For the first membrane, only trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) was used as the solvent; in the second, a mixture of TFA and dichloromethane (DCM) in a 55:45 w/w ratio was used; and in the third, the same ratio was used, but multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were added at a concentration of 3,72% w/w relative to the weight of the polymer. The membrane was electrospun at a voltage of 20 kV, a flow rate of 3.5 ml/h, and with a needle of 0.7 mm outer diameter. The membranes were characterized using atomic force microscopy (AFM) in non-contact mode (NCM) and electrostatic force microscopy (EFM). These analyses revealed that the incorporation of nanotubes altered the membrane’s morphology. Starting from an average fiber diameter of 1339 μm and an average pore diameter of 0.235 μm, a 37.74% decrease in fiber diameter and a 43.89% increase in pore size were observed. Additionally, it was confirmed that the membrane exhibited higher electrical conductivity compared to the original membrane, suggesting its potential application in water treatment, and biogas production.