Study of hydrogen permeability in polymer films with metal oxide nanoparticles synthesized in plasma under the effect of ultrasound

In this work, we studied the hydrogen permeability for a series of composite films based on the copolymer of ethylene and vinyl acetate and nanoparticles of metal oxides, as well as graphene oxide. For comparative tests of physical, mechanical and gas transport characteristics, 5 samples of polymer films with various nano-sized fillers were obtained: graphene oxide, zinc oxide, tin oxide, a mixture of graphene oxide and zinc oxide, a mixture of graphene oxide and tin oxide. For these film samples, scanning electron microscope photographs were taken of both the film itself and a transverse fracture of the film taken at liquid nitrogen temperature. Mechanical tensile tests were carried out to establish the strength and stiffness properties. Gas transport properties of composite membrane materials were determined using a barometric device and integral registration method. It has been shown that the highest values of ultimate strains were obtained for film samples with tin oxide nanoparticles and a mixture of zinc oxide and graphene oxide nanoparticles (over 500%). The highest value of the ultimate load was found for film samples with nanoparticles of zinc oxide and graphene oxide. Apparently, the presence of graphene oxide has some effect on the strengthening of dispersion-reinforced composites. The values of the hydrogen permeability coefficient for samples reinforced with ceramic nanoparticles of zinc oxide and tin oxide (17 and 15) are almost comparable to the value obtained when using graphene oxide (20). The use of the combined demonstrates the increase of the permeability coefficient: in the case of a tin oxide + graphene oxide filler, the permeability coefficient is 25 Barrer, and for a zinc oxide + graphene oxide filler, the permeability coefficient is 23 Barrer.