With the ever-increasing world population and urbanization, we are slowly moving towards a future where the scarcity of purified water will be a major issue. Even at present many are deprived of access to safe water for consumption. The hardness of water is a major concern among water quality parameters and has to be mitigated by water softening. In this research, we have developed facile, cost-effective, amine-functionalized mesoporous silica incorporated cellulose acetate (AMS/CA) electrospun membranes for water softening. Here the amine-functionalized mesoporous silica nanoparticles (AMS) were first synthesized by microwave-assisted sol-gel method and were incorporated into the cellulose acetate nanofibers via electrospinning. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images were used to validate the effective synthesis of AMS. The Si-O-Si bond is indicated by a prominent peak at 1053 cm-1, and the peaks at 3373 cm-1 and 1636 cm-1, which correspond to N-H stretching and bending, respectively, confirmed the effective silica synthesis and amine functionalization. The SEM and DLS results demonstrated the successful nano-sized (100 - 350 nm) AMS particles synthesis. SEM images, FT-IR, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results also revealed that the AMS nanoparticles were successfully incorporated into the nanofiber membrane. The XPS peaks at 102 eV (Si2p) and 400 eV (N1s) confirmed the integration of AMS onto the nanofiber membrane. Under dynamic settings at a pH of 7.3, 100 mg of the AMS/CA membrane with a 50 wt.% loading of AMS showed an increased removal of approximately 65% Calcium ions (200 ppm initial). The pure CA membrane, on the other hand, revealed just 19% removal, indicating that calcium ion removal is mostly accomplished through chelation via the -NH groups of AMS in the AMS/CA nanocomposite membrane. Hence the low-cost biodegradable AMS/CA nanocomposite membranes manifested a potential in water softening.

Electrospun cellulose acetate/amine-functionalized mesoporous silica nanofibers for efficient removal of calcium ions in drinking water

Fall 2022 abstracts, posters, and presentations will launch in mid-September.

ACS Fall 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.