Chitosan-rectorite nanospheres immobilized on polystyrene fibrous mats via alternate electrospinning/electrospraying techniques for copper ions adsorption

摘要

Chitosan (CS), as a kind of well characterized biopolymer, has been used for heavy metal adsorption due to its low cost and high efficacy. However, when used directly, chitosan particles had small surface area and weak mechanical strength which is unfavorable to metal adsorption and reused. Besides, it cannot be easily recycled that may cause a secondary pollution. In this paper, CS and layered silicate rectorite (REC) were fully mixed and the mixtures were subsequently electrosprayed nano-sized spheres, which were immobilized on the surface of electrospun polystyrene (PS) mats for metal adsorption. The morphology analysis taken from SEM confirmed that CS-REC nanospheres were loaded on the surface of PS fibrous mats. Small Angle X-ray diffraction patterns showed that the interlayer distance of REC in composite mats was enlarged by the intercalation of CS chains; such structure meant bigger surface area which was helpful for metal adsorption. The data of contact angle implied that PS mats coated with CS-REC nanospheres exhibited better hydrophilicity than PS mats, which was conductive to adsorption rate. Besides, the copper ions adsorption of composite mats was tested at different conditions including the adsorption time, the initial pH and the initial concentration of copper ion. The results demonstrated that PS mats coated with CS-REC nanospheres had the adsorption capacity up to 134mg/g. In addition, the addition of REC containing Ca2+ could also improve the metal adsorption because of cation exchange. The desorption assay indicated that PS mats immobilized with CS and CS-REC still kept high adsorption ability which retained 74% and 78% after three adsorption-desorption cycles. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.