Electrospun nanofiber mat of graphene/mesoporous silica composite for wastewater treatment

Abstract

In this research, we fabricated the electrospun nanofibers based on functionalized porous graphene (FPG), modified SBA-15 (SBA/CuO), Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), and Polyacrylonitrile (PAN). FPG, SBA/CuO, and PAN concentrations, and applied voltage were optimized to fabricate the nanofibers with the best morphology. The average diameter of optimized nanofibers was obtained at 124 ± 41 nm. A series of characterizations, including FE-SEM, EDX, AFM, FT-IR, XRD, TG-DTA, tensile and contact angle measurements were employed to study the structure and morphology of nanofibers. We fabricated a Nano-filter from nanofibers to remove some water pollutants including methylene blue, malachite green, potassium permanganate, copper, lead, and cadmium ions. The filtration performance of the proposed Nano-filter was examined under the optimum conditions (concentration, volume, and pH) for each of the water pollutants (R> 97%). The results of Nano-filter recycling showed that it could be reused up to 5 times with more than 90% efficiency. Experiments have demonstrated that Nano-filter has ideal performance in the removal of dyes and metal ions from factory wastewater. Besides, the static and dynamic adsorption capacities were explored, where methylene blue (112 mg/g) and lead ions (131 mg/g) had higher static states were higher than other dyes and metal ions.