Remediation of pollutions with oily products using polymer-based fibers as sorbents

Abstract

Fibrous polymeric materials gained particular interest, owing to their significant contact surface area and tunable porous morphology. A fibrous--porous sorbent based on electrospun poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) was fabricated and investigated for oil sorption applications. The copolymer was electrospun under optimized operating conditions, aiming to obtain a porous, hydrophobic nonwoven composed of submicronic fibers. The material was characterized by FT-IR, EDAX, SEM, and mechanical testing. Its sorption performance was assessed for the uptake of the motor oil (0.843 g/mL, 67 cP), yielding a sorption capacity of 9.3 g/g, and oil recovery from the spent sorbent was demonstrated by centrifugation. Additionally, a comparative analysis was performed between the electrospun nonwovens (submicronic fibers) and conventional textile nonwovens (microfibers). Thus, it was pointed out that the influence of fiber diameter and inter-fiber spacing affects the sorption capacity and oil recovery efficiency by centrifugation.