Chitosan/poly(vinyl
alcohol)/amino-functionalized montmorillonite
nanocomposite electrospun membranes with enhanced adsorption capacity
and thermomechanical properties were fabricated and utilized for the
removal of a model cationic dye (Basic Blue 41). Effects of nanofiller
concentrations (up to 3.0 wt %) on the morphology and size of the
nanofibers as well as the porosity and thermomechanical properties
of the nanocomposite membranes are studied. It is shown that the incorporation
of the nanoclay particles with ∼10 nm lateral sizes into the
polymer increases the size of the pores by about 80%. To demonstrate
the efficiency of the adsorbents, the dye removal rate is investigated
as a function of pH, adsorbent dosage, dye concentration, and nanofiller
loading. The highest and fastest dye removal occurs for the nanofibrous
membranes containing 2 wt % nanofiller, where about 80% of the cationic
dye is removed after 15 min. This performance is at least 20% better
than the pristine chitosan/poly(vinyl alcohol) membrane. The thermal
stability and compression resistance of the nanocomposite membranes
are found to be higher than those of the pristine membrane. In addition,
reusability studies show that the dye removal performance of this
nanocomposite membrane reduces by only about 5% over four cycles.
The adsorption kinetics is explained by the Langmuir isotherm model
and is expressed by a pseudo-second-order kinetic mechanism that determines
a spontaneous chemisorption process. The results of this study provide
a valuable perspective on the fabrication of high-performance, reusable,
and efficient electrospun fibrous nanocomposite adsorbents.