Fabrication of PMMA/zeolite nanofibrous membrane through electrospinning and its adsorption behavior

Abstract

The present work investigates the effect of various solution parameters and electrospinning parameters on the characteristics of electrospun nanofibrous membranes. Scanning electron microscopy was used to analyze the surface morphology of the nanofibrous membrane. Adsorption test on methyl orange was also carried out and analyzed using the UV–vis. Results showed that increasing voltage decreased mean nanofiber diameter. Meanwhile, increasing PMMA concentration, feed rate, distance between collector‐and‐needle tip increased mean nanofiber diameter. Zeolite concentration and needle size did not affect the surface morphology significantly. The UV–vis spectra of the adsorption test showed that ∼93%, 85.5%, and 78% of methyl orange were adsorbed for 30, 50, and 100 mg L−1 initial dye concentration, respectively, within 11 min. The maximum adsorption capacity was found to be 95.33 mg g−1. Therefore, PMMA/zeolite nanofibrous membranes possess the adsorption capability toward effective dye removal. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017, 134, 44450.

Design of polyurethane fibers: Relation between the spinning technique and the resulting fiber topology

“…In this study, two concentrations of polyurethane solution, 10 and 15 wt % are used for electrospinning. Many studies have reported that electrospun fibers with lower concentration of polymer solution have smaller diameters . PU1 is the only sample electrospun from 10 wt % polyurethane solution and it has smaller average diameter than all the samples, except for PU5.…”

“…Most electrospun fibers are straight and only small traces of coiled fibers can be found in some studies . It is unique to have all coiled fibers in PU4 and high portion of coiled fibers in PU2.…”

“…Parameters optimization in electrospinning is often studied in the literature in order to obtain the ideal straight fibers that have the smallest diameter with the absence of beads . The presence of beads is frequently related to the poor mechanical properties of the fibers .…”

“…This alignment of electrospun fibers is also commonly studied in the literature. Randomly oriented fibers can be easily fabricated using stationary collectors, whereas highly aligned fibers can be fabricated using high‐speed rotating collectors . Nonetheless, tedious parameters optimization may be needed to spin highly aligned fibers with high‐speed rotating collectors as the splaying and whipping instability of the solution jet during electrospinning will hinder the alignment of the fibers as stated by Kiselev et al .…”

“…In the literature, some of the common polymer fibers are spun from thermoplastics such as poly(methyl methacrylate), poly(vinylidene fluoride), and poly(ethylene terephthalate) due to their high mechanical strength. However, the elasticity of these fibers is low, typically having less than 50% maximum elastic strain.…”