Dyes and arsenic removal by carbon nanofiber composites disperse in PVA electrospun mat

SEQUEIRA MELANI; BAUTISTA ROXANA; TORASSO, NICOLÁS; ALICIA VERGARA; DAVID PICÓN-BORREGALES; GOYANES, SILVIA

Congreso; 11 th WORLD CONGRESS OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING; 2023

Water contamination can occur by natural origin or by anthropogenic activities and can be caused by organic or inorganic compounds. Among them, arsenic, methylene blue (MB), and rhodamine B (RhB) dyes are of great concern due to their effects on human health and the environment. Hence,developing methodologies to remove this contamination is of paramount importance. In this this work, poly(vinylalcohol) (PVA) electrospun membranes containing two types of carbon composites were developed: carbon nanofibers (PVA/CNF) and carbon nanofibers with iron oxide nanoparticles(PVA/CNF-FeNP) for arsenic and dyes removal from water. CNF were prepared from a PVA electrospun precursor and CNF-FeNP from a PVA precursor containing iron oxide nanoparticles synthesized in situ. The performance of the membranes was evaluated in batch adsorptionexperiments. The PVA/CNF membrane removed 96 % and 70 % of a MB and RhB solution (20 mg/L), respectively. The PVA/CNF-FeNP membrane showed a removal of 90 % of a 100 µg As/L solution.Hence, the remaining As(V) concentration after adsorption lies within the permissible level of arsenic in drinking water, according to the World Health Organization (maximum of 10 μg/L). In addition, reusability tests showed that MB and RhB removal efficiency was reduced by 5 % and 25 % after the fifth cycle. Overall, by comparing with reported values in the literature, the results suggest that confining nano-charges inside PVA nanofibers increases their actives sites and thus adsorptioncapacity.