Synthesis and characterization of poly(vinylidene fuoride) composites with flower-like ZnO particles for flexible pipelines applications

In this paper, flower-like ZnO (FZnO) particles were synthesized through a facile method using different precursor content and reaction time. The as-prepared ZnO particles were then characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the results showed the production of particles with varied aspect ratios (5–14). Composites of poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) with FZnO were prepared and also studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR). A slight reduction of thermal properties was noticed, where the degradation temperature decreased from 439 °C for neat PVDF to around 431–438 °C for the PVDF composites with FZnO. Besides, an increase of β-crystals was observed by incorporating these particles, shifting from 31% (neat PVDF) to 37% in the composites. Furthermore, the permeability coefficient to CO2 reduced around 13%, indicated that the composites with the obtained flower-like ZnO particles might have potential applications as a barrier layer in oil ducts pipelines compared with neat PVDF.