Cellulose acetate-MoS2 amphiphilic Janus-like fibrous sponge for removing oil from wastewater

Abstract

An amphiphilic Janus-like cellulose acetate-molybdenum disulfide (CA-MoS 2 ) fibrous sponge has been designed and synthesized. It aimed to achieve efficient removal of fine oil droplets from industrial wastewater. The CA-MoS 2 fibrous sponge featured an amphiphilic interfacial characteristic with oleophilic MoS 2 nanospheres embedded in hydrophilic fibrous CA polymer networks. The hydrophilic CA allowed the sponge to be stable in the water, so helped the oleophilic MoS 2 to reach the targeted oil droplets. Toluene was used as a model oil compound in experimental evaluations. It confirmed that the amphiphilic CA-MoS 2 fibrous sponge demonstrated 99.9% of toluene removal from 1 v/v% of toluene in water emulsions with excellent regeneration and recycling ability. As high as 57.03 mg of toluene per gram of CA-MoS 2 sponge was achieved within 15 min from 20 v/v/% of toluene in water emulsion. At pH of 8, CA-MoS 2 sponge showed 100% of toluene removal exceeded that at the lower pH values. At 40°C, the adsorption value was 7.6% less than at lower temperature 25°C. In complementary of the experimental works, an artificial neural network (ANN) model was developed to predict toluene adsorption behavior, good agreement between experimental and predicted data was achieved with R 2 = 0.999. These findings make amphiphilic Janus CA-MoS 2 fibrous sponge a promising material for oil consisting industrial wastewater and municipal wastewater treatment and reuse. Developed ANN modeling approach provided an advantage for efficient adsorption predictions. • A CA-MoS 2 amphiphilic Janus fibrous sponge was designed and synthesized. • The sponge has oleophilic MoS 2 nanospheres embedded in hydrophilic CA polymer. • The sponge exhibited superior capacity to remove fine oil droplets from wastewater. • The amphiphilic property and high surface reactivity enhanced the oil adsorption.