CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

One of nowadays technological challenges is the absence of efficient and economic materials capable of removing organic water contaminants at levels below the maximum allowed by international control organisms. The use of nanostructured membranes modified with active components are promising in this sense, because they notably increase the probability of the contaminant being adsorbed on its surface (compared to other non-nanostructured materials). In particular, electrospinning technique allows the production of porous membranes made up by a crisscrossed array of polymeric nanofibers. These types of membranes have a relatively high specific surface area compared to those produced by other methods and they also can be modified in different ways for specific purposes. In this work, water decontamination was achieved by incorporating super-oleophilic nanoparticles (NPs) into electrospun membranes. A solution of water, poly(vinyl alcohol)-PVA and citric acid (crosslinking agent) was electrospun to obtain the membranes, which then were cured to provide water insolubility. Low-pressure plasma polymerized carbonaceous NPs were incorporated into the membranes using a RF capacitively coupled plasma processing reactor. In order to immobilize the NPs, the fibers of the membranes were swelled through water immersion. Xylene and toluene adsorption, both in static and dynamic conditions, were studied via UV-Vis spectroscopy. It is observed a clear functionality of the membranes as contaminants adsorber, with adsorption of contaminant above 60 mg per gram of membrane (120 mg per gram of adsorbent). Consequently, these membranes may be used in large scale water purification, because of their efficiency and simplicity of the production process. Incorporation of more NPs per unit area and the study of ways to clean and reuse after saturation are some aspects to resolve for a commercial version of the product.