Co-axial electrospun polystyrene/polyurethane fibres for oil collection from water surface

Abstract

The pollution arising from oil spills is a matter of great concern due to its damaging impacts on the ecological environment, which has created a tremendous need to find more efficient materials for oil spill cleanup. In this work, we reported a sorbent for oil soak-up from a water surface with a high sorption capacity, good selectivity, and excellent reusability based on the hydrophobic-oleophilic fibrous mats that were fabricated via co-axial electrospinning polystyrene (PS) solution as the shell solution and polyurethane (PU) solution as the core solution. The fine structures of as-prepared fibers were regulated by manipulating the spinning voltages, core solution concentrations, and solvent compositions in shell solutions, which were also characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, nitrogen adsorption method, and synchrotron radiation small-angle X-ray scattering. The effects of inter-fiber voids and intra-fiber porosity on oil sorption capacities were well studied. A comparison of oil sorption capacity for the single fiber with different porous structures was also investigated with the help of scanning transmission X-ray microscopy. The results showed that the sorption capacities of the as-prepared sorbent with regards to motor oil and sunflower seed oil can be 64.40 and 47.48 g g(-1), respectively, approximately 2-3 times that of conventional polypropylene (PP) fibers for these two same oils. Even after five sorption cycles, a comparable oil sorption capacity with PP fibers was still maintained, exhibiting an excellent reusability. We believe that the composite PS-PU fibrous mats have a great potential application in wastewater treatment, oil accident remediation and environmental protection.

The structure and property evaluation of electrospun porous fibrous membrane based on the copolymer of styrene and butyl acrylate

“…Lin et al [21] prepared porous polystyrene nanofibers via electrospinning, and they found that the absorbencies of the fibers to motor oil, bean oil, and sunflower seed oil were 113.87, 111.80, and 96.89 g/g, respectively. Additionally, Lin et al [22] also prepared a fibrous membrane consisting of polystyrene and polyurethane fibers via co-axial electrospinning, and their findings showed that the oils amount absorbed by such membrane was about 2-3 times of the oils amount absorbed by conventional polypropylene nonwoven fabrics. Wu et al [23] fabricated porous polystyrene fibers through a facile electrospinning method, and the corresponding electrospun resultant exhibited outstanding oils absorption performance.…”

Recent Progress of Polyurethane-Based Materials for Oil/Water Separation

“…Due to the good elastic and mechanical properties, electrospun PU membranes have practical application in oil/water separation. [52][53][54] Wang and Yang et al…”

“…This is the¯rst report to demonstrate a self-healing membrane for oil/water separation, which provides the fundamental research for the development of advanced materials for oil/water separation. Lin et al 54 reported that hydrophobic-oleophilic¯brous mats were fabricated via co-axial electrospinning polystyrene (PS) as the shell solution and polyurethane as the core solution. The¯ne structures of as-prepared¯bers were regulated by manipulating the spinning voltages, the concentration of the core, and solvent compositions in shell solutions.…”

“…53 (e) Sorption capacities of the composite PS-PU¯brous mats for motor oil and sun°ower seed oil. 54 mechanical properties and separation e±ciencies of the TPU¯lm should also be considered in the application of oil/water separation.…”

A Scaling Model for Predicting the Gas-Channel Formation Period in Crater-Like Electrospinning of Nanofibers

“…The nanofibrous materials obtained by electrospinning has nonwoven structure with unique features, including interconnected pores and a very large surface to volume ratio, which enable such nanofiber materials to have many applications such as filters, energy storage, environment engineering, protective clothing and tissue engineering [4,5]. With the rapid increase in application of nanofibers in more and more industry areas, electrospinning has been one of the most important and basic techniques in the fabrication of nanofibers since the early 2000s.…”