The feasibility of preparing cellulose acetate/carbon black (CA/CB) composite nanofiber in one step through electrospinning process and investigating its potential oil absorbability and application for machine oil removal from aquatic environment was reported. Different CA/CB composite nanofibers were fabricated by electrospinning of cellulose acetate (CA) solution containing different loads of 0.7, 1.5, and 2.2% CB relative to the weight of CA and labeled as CA/CB0.7, CA/CB1.5, and CA/CB2.2. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) images showed continuous and smooth fiber with submicron diameter ranging from 400–900 nm with good adhering of CB into CA nanofiber. Furthermore, the CA/CB composite nanofibers exhibited high surface area compared with CA nanofiber, which reached 3.057, 2.8718 and 8.244 m2/g for CA/CB0.7, CA/CB1.5 and CA/CB2.2, respectively. Oil adsorption tests were performed with heavy and light machine oils. The CA/CB composite nanofibers showed higher affinity for oil removal from an aqueous solution than pure CA nanofiber. The CA/CB1.5 composite nanofiber has an exceptional performance for the adsorption of both oils, and the maximum oil adsorbed reached 10.6 and 18.3 g/g for light and heavy machine oils, respectively. The kinetic of machine oils adsorption was fitted well by the pseudo-second-order model. Besides, CA/CB composite nanofiber exposed good adsorption properties and respectable reusability after regeneration for four consecutive cycles. The results advocate the excellent potential of as-fabricated CA/CB composite nanofiber as a promising reusable oil adsorbent for oil spill cleanup applications.
Oil and organic pollutants are significant disasters affecting the aquatic ecosystem and human health. A novel nanofiber composite from cellulose acetate/activated carbon (CA/AC) was successfully fabricated by the electrospinning technique. CA/AC nanofiber composites were prepared from 10% (w/v) polymer solutions dissolving in DMA/acetone ratio 1:3 (v/v) with adding three different percentages of AC (3.7, 5.5, and 6.7%) to the total weight of CA. The prepared CA/AC nanofiber composite morphology reveals randomly oriented bead-free fibers with submicron fiber diameter. CA/AC nanofiber composites were further characterized by TGA, DSC, and surface area analysis. Water uptake was investigated for fabricated fibers at different pH. Oil adsorption was conducted in both static (oil only) and dynamic (oil/water) systems to estimate the adsorption capacity of prepared composites to treat heavy and light machine oils. The results showed increased oil adsorption capacity incorporating activated carbon into CA nanofiber mats. The maximum sorption capacity reached 8.3 and 5.5 g/g for heavy and light machine oils obtained by CA/AC5.5 (AC, 5.5%). A higher oil uptake was reported for the CA/AC composite nanofibers and showed a constant sorption capacity after the second recycles in the reusability test. Of isotherm models, the most applicable model was the Freundlich isotherm model. The result of kinetic models proved the fit of the pseudo-second-order kinetic model to the adsorption system.
The present study fabricated regenerated cellulose nanofiber incorporated with activated carbon and functionalized rC/AC3.7 with EDTA reagent for methylene blue (MB) dye removal. The rC/AC3.7 was fabricated by electrospinning cellulose acetate (CA) with activated carbon (AC) solution followed by deacetylation. FT-IR spectroscopy was applied to prove the chemical structures. In contrast, BET, SEM, TGA and DSC analyses were applied to study the fiber diameter and structure morphology, the thermal properties and the surface properties of rC/AC3.7-EDTA. The CA was successfully deacetylated to give regenerated cellulose nanofiber/activated carbon, and then ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid dianhydride was used to functionalize the fabricated nanofiber composite. The rC/AC3.7-EDTA, rC/AC5.5-EDTA and rC/AC6.7-EDTA were tested for adsorption of MB dye with maximum removal percentages reaching 97.48, 90.44 and 94.17%, respectively. The best circumstances for batch absorption experiments of MB dye on rC/AC3.7-EDTA were pH 7, an adsorbent dose of 2 g/L, and a starting MB dye concentration of 20 mg/L for 180 min of contact time, with a maximum removal percentage of 99.14%. The best-fit isotherm models are Temkin and Hasely. The outcome of isotherm models illustrates the applicability of the Langmuir isotherm model (LIM). The maximal monolayer capacity Qm determined from the linear LIM is 60.61 for 0.5 g/L of rC/AC3.7-EDTA. However, based on the results from error function studies, the generalized isotherm model has the lowest accuracy. The data obtained by the kinetic models’ studies exposed that the absorption system follows the pseudo-second-order kinetic model (PSOM) throughout the absorption period.
There are global challenges in addressing the oil spill treatment. Nanofiber has become a great potential in the oil spill cleaning process because of the environmental friendliness, high efficiency, low cost, and stability of the obtained nanofiber mats. This study presents a novel composite fabricated from cellulose acetate (CA) and cellulose nitrate (CN) nanofibers with the incorporation of carbon black (CA-CN/CB) for efficient oil removal. This nanofiber composite was fabricated in one-step electrospinning of 10% CA and CN solution with different concentrations of carbon black (CB). The morphology and fiber diameter of the CA-CN/CB nanofiber composite were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and they appeared to be smooth, uniform fibers without beads. The average fiber diameter was in nano-meter size and increased with the increasing CB amount in the composite, ranging from 327 to 755 nm. The FTIR results indicated the presence of CA and CN as characteristic peaks of C = O for CA and O-NO2 for CN. The nanofibers mats of the CA-CN, CA-CN/CB0.7, CA-CN/CB1.5, and CA-CN/CB2.2 composites had Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area of 15.29, 38.40, 4.08, and 6.17 m2 g−1, respectively. Under optimal conditions, CA-CN/CB nanofiber mats absorb more than their weight oil in just 30 min. The adsorption result showed that loading 1.5% of CB to CA-CN mats (CA-CN/CB1.5) was more favorable for oil adsorption. The CA-CN/CB1.5 nanofiber showed its reusability for oil adsorption. The Freundlich isotherm model was the most appropriate model among other isotherm models, including Langmuir and Temkin, with a value of correlation coefficient (R2) equal to or closer to unity, and this result was confirmed by the data obtained from studying different error function models. The adsorption kinetics showed that oil adsorption into CA-CN/CB1.5 nanofiber follows a pseudo-second-order kinetics model with R2 close to unity.
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