Electrospun Silica-Polyacrylonitrile Nanohybrids for Water Treatments
Beata Malczewska,
Paweł Lochyński,
Sylwia Charazińska,
Andrzej Sikora,
Ramin Farnood
Affiliations
Beata Malczewska
Institute of Environmental Engineering, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, pl. Grunwaldzki 24, 50-365 Wroclaw, Poland
Paweł Lochyński
Institute of Environmental Engineering, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, pl. Grunwaldzki 24, 50-365 Wroclaw, Poland
Sylwia Charazińska
Institute of Environmental Engineering, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, pl. Grunwaldzki 24, 50-365 Wroclaw, Poland
Andrzej Sikora
Department of Nanometrology, Faculty of Electronics, Photonics and Microsystems, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, 50-372 Wroclaw, Poland
Ramin Farnood
Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, University of Toronto, 200 College St, Toronto, ON M5S 3E5, Canada
In this work, the removal of NOM (natural organic matter) as represented by humic acid by means of electrospun nanofiber adsorptive membranes (ENAMs) is described. Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) was used for the preparation of ENAMs incorporating silica nanoparticles as adsorbents. The addition of silica to the polymer left visible changes on the structural morphology and fibers’ properties of the membrane. The membrane samples were characterized by pure water permeability, contact angle measurement, SEM, XPS, and XRD. This study assesses the preliminary performance of PAN-Si membranes for the removal of natural organic matter (NOM). The membrane rejected the humic acid, a surrogate of NOM, from 69.57% to 87.5%.
