Incorporation of nanomaterials on the electrospun membrane process with potential use in water treatment

Research Progress of Water Treatment Technology Based on Nanofiber Membranes

In the field of water purification, membrane separation technology plays a significant role. Electrospinning has emerged as a primary method to produce nanofiber membranes due to its straightforward, low cost, functional diversity, and process controllability. It is possible to flexibly control the structural characteristics of electrospun nanofiber membranes as well as carry out various membrane material combinations to make full use of their various properties, including high porosity, high selectivity, and microporous permeability to obtain high-performance water treatment membranes. These water separation membranes can satisfy the fast and efficient purification requirements in different water purification applications due to their high filtration efficiency. The current research on water treatment membranes is still focused on creating high-permeability membranes with outstanding selectivity, remarkable antifouling performance, superior physical and chemical performance, and long-term stability. This paper reviewed the preparation methods and properties of electrospun nanofiber membranes for water treatment in various fields, including microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, forward osmosis, and other special applications. Lastly, various antifouling technologies and research progress of water treatment membranes were discussed, and the future development direction of electrospun nanofiber membranes for water treatment was also presented.

Competitive adsorption of Alizarin Red S and Bromocresol Green from aqueous solutions using brookite TiO2 nanoparticles: experimental and molecular dynamics simulation

In this work, the effective adsorption and the subsequent photodegradation activity, of TiO₂ brookite nanoparticles, for the removal of anionic dyes, namely, Alizarin Red S (ARS) and Bromocresol Green (BCG) were studied. Batch adsorption experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of both dyes' concentration, contact time, and temperature. Photodegradation experiments for the adsorbed dyes were achieved using ultraviolet light illumination (6 W, λ = 365 nm). The single adsorption isotherms were fitted to the Sips model. The binary adsorption isotherms were fitted using the Extended-Sips model. The results of adsorption isotherms showed that the estimated maximum adsorption uptakes in the binary system were around 140 mg g^-1 and 45.5 mg g^-1 for ARS and BCG, respectively. In terms of adsorption kinetics, the uptake toward ARS was faster than BCG molecules in which the equilibrium was obtained in 7 min for ARS, while it took 180 min for BCG. Moreover, the thermodynamics results showed that the adsorption process was spontaneous for both anionic dyes. All these macroscopic competitive adsorption results indicate high selectivity toward ARS molecules in the presence of BCG molecules. Additionally, the TiO₂ nanoparticles were successfully regenerated using UV irradiation. Moreover, molecular dynamics computational modeling was performed to understand the molecules' optimum coordination, TiO₂ geometry, adsorption selectivity, and binary solution adsorption energies. The simulation energies distribution exhibits lower adsorption energies for ARS in the range from - 628 to - 1046 [Formula: see text] for both single and binary systems. In addition to that, the water adsorption energy was found to be between - 42 and - 209 [Formula: see text].