Preparation and pollution treatment of degradable PLA/OMMT nanofiber membrane by melt differential electrospinning

Abstract

Degradable polylactide (PLA) nanofibers can be prepared by solvent free melt electrospinning technology which is promising,challenging and green. The nanofiber membrane prepared by this method have high porosities and strong adsorption capacities,and thus are useful for treating the environmental pollution efficiently. The organic montmorillonite(OMMT) was introduced into PLA, and the PLA/OMMT nanofiber membrane were prepared at 260℃ by using a self-made melt differential electrospinning device. The effect of OMMT content of PLA nanofiber membrane on the morphology,the oil absorption property,the air filtration performance and the degradability was investigated, and the optimum OMMT content was obtained. The research shows that the thermal stability of PLA is increased and the crystallinity of PLA is decreased significantly after adding OMMT. When the OMMT content is 2%,the diameter of the fiber reaches 450nm. The oil absorption rate of the nanofiber membrane is 133.5g/g which is 4-5 times higher than that of commercially available PP non-wovens,and the oil holding rate is 84.2g/g. Moreover,the nanofiber membrane has good reuse performance. The air filtration efficiency of the nanofiber membrane for dust particles(≥ 0.3μm) is 99.31%,reaching the European standard H11 filtration class. The degradation of PLA/OMMT nanofiber membrane is improved comparing with the pure PLA, which reduces the second pollution and accords with the requirements of industrial green environmental protection.

Keywords

• melt electrospinning
• pollution
• nanomaterials
• membrane
• adsorption
• filtration
• degradation