PAN/PS elctrospun fibers for oil spill cleanup

Abstract

A high-capacity oil sorbent was fabricated by electrospinning using PS/PAN blend. Morphology, contact angle and oil adsorption of PAN/PS fiber and PP nonwoven fabric were studied. It was found that the PAN/PS fiber had a smaller diameter than PP, and the maximum sorption capacities of the PAN/PS sorbent for pump oil, peanut oil, diesel, and gasoline were 194.85, 131.7, 66.75, and 43.38 g/g, which were far higher than those of PP. The sorbent PS/PAN fiber showed a contact angle of water144.32° and diesel oil 0°. The sorption kinetics of PAN/PS and PP sorbent were also investigated. Compared with the commercial PP fabric, the PAN/PS fiber seems to have the ability to be used in oil-spill cleanup application. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.