Upcycled Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Electrospun Nanofibers from Waste PVC-Based Materials for Water Treatment

In recent decades, the increased use of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in industries and households has led to a surge in PVC waste pollution, which mandates developing solutions for the removal of waste PVC from the environment. We report upcycling, the conversion of waste material to a high-value-added product, of PVC-based products to electrospun (ES) fibers (mats). As two common PVC products, waste PVC pipe and waste PVC pool float were upcycled to ES fibers for water treatment. The fabrication process and fiber characteristics, such as morphology, surface charge, and mechanical strength of upcycled fibers, were studied and compared with the same fibers fabricated using research-grade (RG) PVC (commercial PVC powder). In addition, the effect of additives such as calcium carbonate in PVC waste products on the physicochemical properties of upcycled fibers was evaluated. The results showed that upcycling of waste PVC to ES fibers is feasible since the upcycled fibers showed similar or superior properties compared to their equivalent fibers from RG-PVC. Finally, the performance of upcycled fibers on the removal of dyes from the water was evaluated. The upcycled fibers from waste PVC pipes and pool float outperformed the RG PVC fibers in removing methylene blue from water by showing more than 97% removal efficiency. In addition, the upcycled PVC ES fibers showed more than 80% reusability after five adsorption-desorption cycles.