Study on the Preparation and Lipophilic Properties of Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) Nanofiber Membranes via Green Electrospinning.

Jun Cong Ge,Guirong Wu,Min Soo Kim,Nag Jung Choi,Sam Ki Yoon

doi:10.3390/nano11102514

Abstract

As an environmentally friendly water-soluble polymer, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) has attracted extensive attention because of its non-toxic, degradable, low cost, and good biocompatibility. Electrospinning is a kind of nanotechnology, and the nanofiber membrane prepared by it has the advantages of large surface area-to-volume ratios, nano- to micron-sized fibers, etc. Herein, a simple and facile one-step green electrospinning method was developed to fabricate various environmentally friendly PVA nanofiber membranes. The lipophilic properties of PVA membranes were investigated and optimized according different PVA concentrations. The PVA electrospun fiber prepared from the solution at a concentration of 10 wt% had the highest adsorption capacity for the adsorption of new and waste engine oils, and the waste engine oil adsorption capacity (12.70 g/g) was higher than that of new engine oil (11.67 g/g). It also has a relatively large BET surface area (12.05 m2/g), a pore volume (0.04 cm3/g), and an appropriate pore diameter (13.69 nm) and fiber diameter (174.21 nm). All electrospun PVA membranes showed excellent lipophilic properties due to their oil contact angles of much less than 30°. Therefore, PVA electrospun fibrous membranes have great application potential in the field of purifying engine oil due to the excellent lipophilic properties and oil absorption capacity.

Highlights

Electrospinning, as one of the simplest technologies to prepare nanofibers, has attracted wide attention for many years
Eight different environmentally friendly polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) nanofibrous membranes were successfully fabricated via one-step electrospinning technology
8 wt% and 15 wt%, undesirable beaded fiber and agglomerate structures were formed, respectively, when the PVA concentration was lower than 9 wt% or more than 14 wt%

Summary

Introduction

Electrospinning, as one of the simplest technologies to prepare nanofibers, has attracted wide attention for many years. The electrospun fibers are widely used in filtration [8], ultrafiltration [9], affinity membranes [10], protective clothing [11], scaffolds in tissue engineering [12], enzyme immobilization [13], drug delivery [14], battery materials [15], sensor [16], and other fields [17]. The spinnable materials that are commonly used for electrospinning are polyurethane (PU) [18], polyacrylonitrile (PAN) [19], polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) [20], and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) [21].

Methods

Results

Conclusion