Due to the poor maintenance or inadvertent discharge of industrial wastes, heavy metal contamination in surface water and groundwater still pose a persistent and significant threat to human health, especially to individuals dependent on decentralized sources for potable use. In order to remediate these sources, point-of-use (POU) technologies that incorporate nanomaterials can be developed to efficiently and cost-effectively combat these contaminants. Electrospinning is one such nanofabrication technique that can produce chemically-active membranes of nanofibers that can be easily integrated into POU technology. In this work, silica-based nanofibers will be systematically fabricated via electrospinning to minimize fiber diameter, and, thus, maximizing adsorption surface site potential. Subsequently, these nanomaterials will be analyzed for their physical and chemical properties and tested against a heavy metal contaminant (i.e. copper) in batch aqueous systems to quantify adsorption performance, in addition to commercial silica powders. These pure ceramic nanomaterials will be developed in hopes of understanding the optimal adsorption capabilities of silica nanofibers and designing silica-embedded polymeric composite nanofibers, which are more suitable for POU applications due to their greater mechanical stability.

Synthesis and characterization of electrospun silica-based nanofibers for Cu(II) removal of contaminated water

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ACS Fall 2022

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