Fibre Chemisorbents — Material for Environmental Protection. A Review

Abstract

Chemisorption fibres occupy an important position among the materials used for environmental protection. Their most important properties include the high specific surface area and possible fabrication of different articles from them, which allows creating highly effective industrial processes for removing toxic substances from gas—air and air media. The use of fibre chemisorbents in equipment for individual protection is no less urgent. However, when dealing with elimination of harmful emissions, technical and economic substantiation of the use of fibre sorbents (consideration of the concentration, chemical composition, and treated stream flow rates) is required. In further studies on development of chemisorbents, attention should be focused on obtaining materials with a high content of chemically active groups while preserving the mechanical properties that ensure their processing into textile articles. Polystyrene is the polymer most resistant to acids and bases. However, even with a 50% polyolefin content, it does not have sufficient elasticity for processing into textiles. The high reactivity of the nitrile groups in polyacrylonitrile makes it possible to manufacture chemisorption fibres by polymer-analog transformations. Acrylonitrile can also be used as the monomer for synthesis of copolymers with other vinylic compounds having active groups, for example, with 5-vinyl-2-methylpyridine. In Russia, chemisorption fibres are manufactured from a copolymer of acrylonitrile. Further research on the creation and use of chemisorption fibres is briefly examined here; new problems could arise in developing and using chemisorption fibres and these problems will also have to be solved.