Quantification the morphological structure of bio-based membrane by high resolution of SEM imaging.

For the purpose of semi-permeable filtration system, membrane morphological structure determines the permeation quality. Membrane surface porosity, pore size distribution, symmetric and asymmetric structure in cross-section membrane play crucial role in transport properties. Therefore, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) plays important role to visualize the microscopical pore structure of membranes. In this study, bio-based composite membranes were prepared using non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS) method. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) was employed as the main material, while ginger extract (GE) and SiO2 nanoparticles were used as additives. SEM image in this study provide information of membrane structure in surface and cross-section part. Furthermore, quantitative data of membranes in term of overall porosity is also presented. ImageJ tools is applied as software-aided SEM images processing method. The result analysis shows that addition of GE and SiO2 increase membrane porosity up to 70.81%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]