TY - JOUR
T1 - Stable and effective super-hydrophilic polysulfone nanofiber mats for oil/water separation
AU - Obaid, M.
AU - Barakat, Nasser A.M.
AU - Fadali, Olfat A.
AU - Al-Meer, Saeed
AU - Elsaid, Khalid
AU - Khalil, Khalil Abdelrazek
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd.
PY - 2015/7/24
Y1 - 2015/7/24
N2 - Abstract Hydrophobicity of polysulfone is the main constraint facing wide application in the most important field; water treatment, although this polymer shows promising characteristics to be used in different separation technologies. In this study, super-hydrophilic polysulfone nanofiber mats are introduced using novel modifications. The introduced nanofibers were synthesized by electrospinning of polysulfone/NaOH/DMF electrospun solution. The prepared electrospun nanofibers have been activated by deposition of a polyamide layer using interfacial polymerization (IP) reaction between m-phenylenediamine and 1,3,5-benzenetricarbonyl chloride. Three different heat treatment methodologies were investigated to enhance the characteristics of the activated nanofiber mats; normal drying at 70 °C, and soaking in boiled water followed by either normal drying at 70 °C or storing in the water. Investigation of the mechanical properties indicated that incorporation of NaOH improves the tensile stress by 40% compared to the pristine polysulfone nanofibers. Interestingly, treatment of the activated nanofiber mats in the boiled water followed by storing in water led to produce super-hydrophilic mats with water contact angle of 3°due to enhancing the IP reaction on the surface of the individual nanofibers. In oil/water separation process, the proposed heat treatment for the modified nanofiber mats resulted in increase the water flux from 8 to 12.21 m3/m2 day with oil rejection of 99.976%.
AB - Abstract Hydrophobicity of polysulfone is the main constraint facing wide application in the most important field; water treatment, although this polymer shows promising characteristics to be used in different separation technologies. In this study, super-hydrophilic polysulfone nanofiber mats are introduced using novel modifications. The introduced nanofibers were synthesized by electrospinning of polysulfone/NaOH/DMF electrospun solution. The prepared electrospun nanofibers have been activated by deposition of a polyamide layer using interfacial polymerization (IP) reaction between m-phenylenediamine and 1,3,5-benzenetricarbonyl chloride. Three different heat treatment methodologies were investigated to enhance the characteristics of the activated nanofiber mats; normal drying at 70 °C, and soaking in boiled water followed by either normal drying at 70 °C or storing in the water. Investigation of the mechanical properties indicated that incorporation of NaOH improves the tensile stress by 40% compared to the pristine polysulfone nanofibers. Interestingly, treatment of the activated nanofiber mats in the boiled water followed by storing in water led to produce super-hydrophilic mats with water contact angle of 3°due to enhancing the IP reaction on the surface of the individual nanofibers. In oil/water separation process, the proposed heat treatment for the modified nanofiber mats resulted in increase the water flux from 8 to 12.21 m3/m2 day with oil rejection of 99.976%.
KW - Electrospinning
KW - Nanofibers
KW - Super-hydrophilic polysulfone
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84937937091&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.polymer.2015.07.006
DO - 10.1016/j.polymer.2015.07.006
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84937937091
SN - 0032-3861
VL - 72
SP - 125
EP - 133
JO - Polymer
JF - Polymer
M1 - 17965
ER -