Electrospun polyvinyl chloride/poly (butyl methacrylate-co-butyl acrylate) fibrous mat for absorption of organic matters

Abstract

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is a hydrophobic and lipophilic polymer, and its electrospun mat has plenty of micro- and nanopores. However, the PVC electrospun mat cannot absorb organic substances due to its weak fiber-web structure. The copolymer of butyl methacrylate (BMA) and butyl acrylate (BA) has very good electrospinnability, and its electrospun fibers can construct a firm fiber-web structure through many bonded nodes. However, there are few micro- and nanopores in the fiber-web of the copolymer of BMA and BA since the electrospun fibers of the copolymer of BMA and BA can cohere with each other. Therefore, the copolymer of BMA and BA was blended with PVC in N,N-dimethylformamide to provide their electrospun fibrous mat with good fiber-web structure and many micro- and nanopores, and their electrospun fibrous mat was then used as an absorbent of organic substances in this work. We first discovered the electrospinnable concentrations for PVC solution, the solution of the copolymer of BMA and BA, and the blend solution of PVC and the copolymer of BMA and BA by researching the characteristics of these solutions, and we analyzed the effect of the electrospinnability of PVC in the blend solution on the formation of fiber-web structure. Then, the blend solution with an electrospinnable concentration was electrospun into fibrous mat, and its surface characteristics and absorption capability to organic matters were subsequently investigated. The correlation between absorption capability and fiber-web structure was analyzed through field emission scanning electron microscope. The result showed that the blend solution of PVC and the copolymer of BMA and BA had better electrospinnability in comparison with PVC solution, and the corresponding fibrous mat had a great potential application in removing organic matters since it owned better hydrophobic and lipophilic properties than the fibrous mat electrospun from PVC solution or the solution of the copolymer of BMA and BA.