Ester-Functionalised Ferrocene based Polyvinylbenzyl Chloride Nanofibre as a Decyanidating Agent

Abstract

Diazotization-esterification mechanism was employed to synthesize 1-(2-pyridylazo)-2-naphthyl-bis(ƞ5-cyclopentadienyl)ironcarboxylate, FePNCp, [Fe(C5H5)(C5H4CO2C15H10N3)] which was further embedded on synthesized electrospun polyvinylbenzylchloride (ePVBC) to form a functionalized nanofibre composite of poly(ferrocenyl-l-(2-pyridylazo)-2-naphthylvinylbenzylchloride, (FePNCp-PVBC). FePNCp and ePVBC were characterized using spectroscopic (1H NMR, FT-IR, GC/MS, UV-vis) and scanning electronic microscopic techniques. The polymeric solution of PVBC was pumped via a spinneret at a flow rate of 1.2 mL/h with an applied 30 kV for nanofibres collection. The morphology of the functionalized nanofibre showed smooth fibrous and porous assembled structure with average particle size of 19.92 nm. Owing to the intrinsic properties of the newly produced material, it was applied in the entrapping of cyanide ions from an aqueous medium. Using a sorbent dosage of 0.01g in 8 mg/L CN− concentration, 92.2% decyanidation capacity was observed within 45 minutes for FePNCp-PVBC while 65.83% was obtained for the unfunctionalized ePVBC. The obvious improvement recorded by FePNCp-PVBC for the entrapment of CN− ions could be attributed to coordinative interaction between ferrocenyl molecule and cyanide ligand. By comparing with similar nanofibre materials, this new FePNCp-PVBC gave higher performance efficiency, thus could serve as a better alternative to cyanide detoxification.