To
increase the performance efficiency and decrease the costs for
organic dye wastewater purification, two fibrous adsorbents based
on polymeric salicyl active esters were developed by means of a simple
two-step approach. For the first time, salicyl-based active ester
polymers were electrospun into fibrous membranes and subsequently
postmodified with the desired functional groups under simple and mild
reaction conditions. The morphology of the produced fibrous adsorbents
was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the surface
properties were analyzed by nitrogen adsorption/desorption isotherms
and contact angle measurements, and the completeness of the postmodification
process was determined by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and elemental
analyses. The adsorbents were further tested for their adsorption
and selectivity performance of different organic dyes as well as for
their recyclability. To explore the adsorption mechanism, four kinetic
models and three isotherm models were used to analyze the adsorption
data. The results indicated that the fibrous adsorbents showed an
extremely high adsorption capacity for the anionic dye methyl blue.
The fibrous adsorbents were also able to selectively adsorb anionic
dyes from a mixture of anionic and cationic dyes, and they could be
recycled at least 10 times. The simple and cost-efficient development
process of these fibrous adsorbents and their excellent performance
make them promising materials for further research and application
in the area of water treatment.