Preparation, Characterization and Water Treatment Application of Electro-spun Polyamide 6 Nanocomposite

This study aims to synthesize Polyamide 6 nanofibrous membrane of low molecular weight (PA6) using an electrospinning technique with a concentration of 30% (wt/v) and Polyamide 6 nanofibers containing calcium oxide nanoparticles (PA6/CaO), which were obtained with a CaO concentration of 1% (wt/ wt). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to examine the structure of the electrospun nanofibers, which showed smooth and continuous electrospun nanofibers with a nanofibrous diameter of around 53 nm, and CaO nanoparticles were distributed through the nanofibers with a slight increase in the nanofibrous diameter.The surfaces of the obtained PA6 and PA6/CaO nanofibers were modified by grafting polymerization with acrylic acid AA, with various synthetic parameters such as reaction temperature, monomer concentration, initiator concentration, and emulsifier concentration. The obtained results show that as the concentrations of monomer, initiator, and temperature increased, the grafting yield increased at first, then decreased, but it kept increasing as the emulsifier concentration was increased. The characterization of the obtained graft nanofibers was carried out using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), Thermo Gravimetric Analysis (TGA), and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). The effects of pH, initial concentration, temperature, and contact time on the removal of heavy metals (Co2+, Cr6+) from water solution were investigated, and it was observed that a polyamide6/CaO nanofibrous membrane grafted with AA could adsorb Co2+ more than Cr6+. While the optimum conditions for the removal were observed at an initial concentration of 10 ppm, pH 5 at 150 min under 30 degrees C.