Glow-discharge plasma enhanced coating and functionalization of needle-punched nonwoven PET filter media for textile wastewater decolorization

Abstract

This study reports the use of glow-discharge plasma coated and functionalized PET needle-punched nonwovens as filter media for decolorization of textile dye-containing effluent. The investigation had been aimed at proving the possibility of GDP enhanced coating and functionalization (GDP processing) to produce better results for successfully replace such thermochemical finishing of PEI coat onto the primary PET fibers. The fiber surfaces functionalization with branched polymers such PEI has aroused much interest recently due to their unique properties as dye-immobilization absorber. For this study, the effect of processing time on the dye retention capacity of the functionalized PET nonwovens was investigated. Comparison was made between the most influential parameters of the basic, chemically and GDP processed PET nonwovens, such as: material thickness, air permeability, and puncture strength. The dye-retention capacity of the basic and functionalized nonwovens was determined by two synthetic water effluent – the anionic Orange G and the cationic Methylene Blue test-dyes have been used. The normal glow-discharge plasma processing in air as residual gas at 80 Pa provide the best possible anionic dye retention capacity. Based on this study, it was confirmed that this PEI coated and functionalized PET nonwoven could be used for the immobilization of anionic dyes from colored textile wastewater: the retention capacity from 4.16 to 5.57 mg/g with is comparable to the other available products used as adsorbent in dye-immobilization wastewater treatment.