From Hazardous Chrysotile and Polyamide Wastes into Sustainable Serpentine/Polyamide Nanocomposite Membrane: Fabrication, Characterization, and Environmental Application

Abstract

Sustainable serpentine/polyamide nanocomposite (SP/PAM) was fabricated using malicious mining (serpentine chrysotile, SP Ctl) and industrial (polyamide, PA6) wastes via the electro-spinning technique. Before fabrication, the fibrous nature of Ctl was demolished through intensive grinding into nano-fractions. The successful impregnation of Ctl within PA6 via the electro-spinning technique at fixed ratios of precursor raw materials in the dissolving agent (7.5/92.5% SP/PA wt/wt solid/solid) created an internal network structure within the polymer fibers by molecular self-assembly. SP/PAM showcased its prowess in tackling the remediation of diverse dyes and Fe(III) from synthetic solutions in a batch system. Based on correlation coefficient outcomes (R2 ≈ 0.999), the pseudo-second-order equation justified the sorption data in an adequate way for all contaminants. In addition, intra-particle diffusion was not the only driving factor in the sorption process. Similarly, the Langmuir equation with maximum removal capacity (qmax) 5.97, 4.33, and 5.36 mg/g for MO, MB, and Fe(Ⅲ), respectively, defined the sorption data better than Freundlich.