Rapid One-Step Fabrication of Graphene Oxide-Decorated Polycaprolactone Three-Dimensional Templates for Water Treatment

Abstract

Coating of flexible substrates is crucial to prepare versatile, multifunctional materials. However, exploration of effective fabrication approaches is still a challenging issue, because the pathways generally proposed require time-consuming, multistep protocols. Here, we developed a one-pot process for decorating either pearl necklace-like or fibrous fluffy-like structures of polycaprolactone (PCL) with graphene oxide (GO) skin. PCL solutions were dry jet-wet electrosprayed or electrospun into a stirred liquid collector constituted by ethanol-containing GO nanoparticles. The stirred liquid collector enables the formation of 3D-structures, whose microarchitecture can be designed by controlling the rheological behavior of PCL solutions. Two molecular weights of PCL were used (45 or 80 kDa) with ensuing different viscosity, which determines the prevalent formation of beads or fibers. The presence of GO in the coagulation bath allows the polymeric structures to be rapidly wrapped by those nanoparticles. Graphenic coating endows these materials with the intriguing peculiarities of GO: PCL/GO nanocomposites displayed increments of elastic modulus ranging from 1250% (beads) to 3300% (fibers) with respect to the neat matrices and a change from hydrophobic to amphiphilic character. A potential application of such devices in water treatment was assessed in phenol removal. The results pointed out that PCL/GO scaffolds retain the same sorption capacity of GO nanoparticles, while bringing several advantages in terms of handling, robustness, and recyclability. The ease of control of the process, as well as its fastness and cost-effectiveness could open a wide range of scenarios, including sensors, energy, catalysis, biomedicine.

Green Composites Based on PLA and Agricultural or Marine Waste Prepared by FDM

“…The actual biodegradation kinetics and performance would deserve further investigation and will be the object of a future work. Moreover, among the possible future perspectives, it could be explored the feasibility of such systems in water treatment applications, relying to their porosity and hydrophilicity, as a green and cheap alternative to recently proposed materials [ 32 , 33 ].…”

An Overview of Functionalized Graphene Nanomaterials for Advanced Applications

“…Such hierarchical structures proved to remove and recover phenol moieties from wastewater through low energy operations, thus paving the road to next generation sorbents, inspired by circular economy and zero-waste concepts. [164]. Copyright 2020, American Chemical Society.…”

“…Obviously, the selection of the most suitable sorbent is a critical point. Among the possible options, GO is widely considered as broad-spectrum sorbent for aqueous contaminants, relying on the coexistence of sp 2 -aromatic and sp 3 -oxygenated domains, along with defects and nanocavities [ 164 ]. Indeed, while its hydrophilicity, granted by –COOH, epoxy, and –OH groups [ 165 ], makes it compatible with water treatment operations, its sp 2 graphenic skeletal renders GO exploitable for adsorption of dyes [ 166 ] or for formation of metal ion complexes [ 167 ].…”

Antibacterial Activity of Polymer Nanocomposites Incorporating Graphene and Its Derivatives: A State of Art

“…Maio et al [ 91 ] used a one-step wet electrospinning method for the fabrication of polycaprolactone (PCL)/GO membranes for wastewater treatment. Chen et al [ 92 ] recently developed an ultrafiltration membrane based on GO and polysulfone coated with polydiacetylene that exhibited strong antibacterial activity against E. coli .…”