Surface Modified Polyacrylonitrile Nanofibers and Beads for Methylene Blue Removal

Abstract

Many dyes and their degradation components are mutagenic, toxic, carcinogenic and teratogenic, creating in a huge threat to human health and aquatic life (Swaminathan, 2015). Thus, the removal of dyestuff from wastewaters has been carried out by several techniques such as membrane separation, coagulation, chemical oxidation, electricity, biological methods and adsorption (Rafatullah, 2010). Among the various techniques, adsorption is considered to be a cheaper, simple, attractive and favourable alternative method (Kahraman, 2017). This method can be used to remove different types of dyeing agents i.e., Methylene Blue (MB) from water sources. The present study deals the compatibility of generated adsorbents in different forms for MB removal from wastewater. Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) was chosen to fabricate adsorbents in bead and nanofiber forms due to its binding ability, porosity, mechanical strength, etc. For this purpose, PAN nanofibers were prepared by electrospinning process and PAN beads were fabricated by phase inversion technique. After preparation of PAN based adsorbents in different forms, amine modification was performed to create an active surfaces and hydrophilic characters to the adsorbents. The physical and chemical properties of modified electrospun nanofiber and beads were characterized using FTIR and SEM analysis. Effect of various factors such as initial pH, concentration of adsorbents, dye concentration, and contact time, etc. on the adsorption of MB have been studied and discussed.