Polyvinyl alcohol/chitosan/silver nanofibers as antibacterial agents and as efficient adsorbents to remove methyl orange from aqueous solutions

In the present work, polyvinyl alcohol nanofiber was fabricated—using chitosan and silver nanoparticles—via electrospinning method as an efficient sorbent to capture methyl orange (MO) from aqueous solution. The positive characteristic of the present research is to use a minimum of non-aqueous solvent. The morphology and structure of nanofiber were characterized by thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The adsorption of dye from the aqueous solution using nanofiber was performed. Besides, the obtained results showed that the maximum removal efficiency was achieved at 80 min, pH = 5.5, and adsorbent dosage = 0.09 g in 25 mL of solution. The prepared nanofibers also showed appreciable antibacterial activity against S. aureus, E. coli, P. aeruginosa and S. aureus, due to the prevention of bacterial growth at low silver concentrations. The results demonstrated that the prepared nanofiber can be a good candidate for the efficient removal of MO molecules and inhabitation of bacterial growth from waste water.