Fabrication of novel magnetic zinc oxide cellulose acetate hybrid nano-fiber to be utilized for phenol decontamination

Abstract

An innovative magnetic nano-fiber composite was prepared via hybridization nano-magnetite zinc oxide and cellulose acetate (CA) using electrospinning technique. The affinity of synthesized composite nano-fiber for phenol adsorption from aqueous solution was monitored. Different parameters that effected on the fabrication of pure CA nano-fiber were optimized. The most proper fabricated CA nano-fiberr was achieved using 10% CA that was dissolved at acetone and dimethylacetamide (DMAc) solution with mixing ratio 2:1 the electrospinning applied voltage was 20 KV and the appropriate separation distance was 25 cm using 0.5 ml/h flow rate. Different weights of magnetic zinc oxide were immobilized onto the most proper fabricated CA nano-fiber (10% CA) to fabricate novel ZnO magnetic CA composite nanofiber. The various fabricated CA based nano-fibers either after and before magnetic ZnO immobilization were characterized using SEM, XRD and FTIR. The phenol sorption affinities of the various fabricated CA nano-fibers were tested using synthetic polluted wastewater in batch manner. It was recorded that magnetite ZnOCA hybrid nanofiber with 0.1% magnetic zinc oxide immobilization represents the most efficient fabricated nanofiber compared with other studied fabricated CA based nano-fiber. This novel composite nano-fiber has ability to adsorb 64% of phenol within 2 h. The various parameters affecting the phenol sorption process onto this novel fabricated composite were optimized. It was evident that the increment at both the solution pH and temperature has negative impact on the phenol sorption process onto the novel fabricated magnetic ZnOCA composite nano-fiber.