Abstract
Rapid global industrialization has worsened the heavy metal contamination of aquatic ecosystems globally. In this study, green, ultrafine cellulose-based porous nanofibrous membranes for efficient heavy metal removal were obtained by incorporating chitosan (CS) and using conventional and core–shell electrospinning ways. The relationship between the parameters of the electrospinning solution, the micro-morphology and porosity, the chemically active sites, the thermal stability, and the adsorption performance of the biocomposite nanofibrous membranes were analyzed. The adsorption effects of the copper ions, including the initial concentration, solution pH, and interaction time, were investigated. The results show that the average diameters of the conventional and core–shell ultrafine nanofibers with 50% and 30% CS loading are 56.22 nm and 37.28 nm, respectively. The core–shell cellulose acetate (CA)/CS biocomposite nanofibrous membranes showed the weaker thermal stability with a 48.2 °C lower maximum thermal decomposition temperature and induced the surface aggregation of more copper ions compared to the conventional one. A more uniform distribution of the chemical adsorption sites is obtained by conventional single-nozzle electrospinning than by core–shell electrospinning, which effectively promotes the adsorption performance of copper ions and decreases the surface shrinkage of the nanofibrous membranes during adsorption. The 30% CS conventional nanofibrous membranes at an aqueous solution pH of 5 showed the optimum adsorption capacity of copper ions (86.4 mg/g). The smart combination of renewable biomass with effective chemical adsorption sites, electrospinning technology that produces an interwoven porous structure, and an adsorption method with low cost and facile operation shows a promising prospect for water treatment.
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Acknowledgments
The authors sincerely appreciated the financial support of the Applied Basic Research Programs of Yunnan Province (The mechanical fibrillation mechanism of bamboo-based cellulose nanofibrils with green low energy consumption, 202201AT070058), the Opening Project of Guangxi Key Laboratory of Forest Products Chemistry and Engineering (GXFK2209), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (32060381), the Applied Basic Research Programs of Yunnan Province (The fabrication of biomass porous nanocomposite fiber for adsorption functional membrane and synergistic mechanism of network hinge, 2019FB067), the Scientific Research Funds of Educational Committee of Yunnan Province (2022Y552), National College Students Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program (202110677009), the High Level Innovative One-Ten-Thousand Youth Talents of Yunnan Province (YNWR-QNBJ-2020-203), the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (1012359) and 111 Project (D21027).
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KX and SW proposed the scientific target and designed the experiments. QL, GS and RL helped to complete the operations and data collection of tensiometer, conductometer and FTIR instruments. LX and JY helped to do the analyses of curves in XPS and BET. GD and JZ and provided lots of help in discussing the relations among parameters of electrospun solution, micro-morphology and porosity for nanofibers, the variation of chemical active sites and adsorption performance of biocomposite nanofibrous membranes for conventional and core–shell electrospinning as well as the adsorption effect factors of copper ions. JW was responsible for completing all the other experiments and wrote the original draft. ZT polished the English grammar, and SW further revised the manuscript. KX and SW provided the funds support.
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Wu, J., Li, Q., Su, G. et al. Green, ultrafine cellulose-based porous nanofibrous membranes for efficient heavy metal removal through incorporation of chitosan by various electrospinning ways. Cellulose 29, 5745–5763 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-022-04629-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-022-04629-z