Synthesis and characterization of functionalized polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and the high temperature catalytic activity of PVDF-g-MAH/V2O5 nanocomposite toward transesterification reaction

Functionalization of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) was carried out by two different methodology namely, aza-Michael addition and free radical reaction from the dehydrofluorinated PVDF. Functionalization agents like 2MI, CR, and indole were grafted onto KOH treated PVDF via aza-Michael addition reaction whereas MAH and MI were grafted onto the same via free radical reaction. The functionalized PVDF was characterized by FTIR, DSC, TGA, WCA measurement, SEM, and EDX. Further, the MAH grafted PVDF was doped with V2O5 nanoparticles to form a catalytic membrane. Transesterification reaction (TER) was done using the PVDF-g-MAH/V2O5 membrane but ended with negative results due to the low residential time. Hence, it was done in a conventional technique in the presence of pieces of membrane material as a template. The product with the red shift in the absorbance spectrum confirmed the TER.