Adsorption of fluorine ion from water by composite nonwovens

Abstract

Fluorine ions exceed standard in drinking water that have the great influence on human health in daily life. This work reports a novel sandwich structure composite nonwovens used for fluorine ions removal from drinking water. It consists of silk fibroin-carbon nanotubes (SF-CNTs) nanofibers and polypropylene (PP) nonwoven prepared by electrospinning. The morphology, structure of SF-CNTs-PP nonwovens are characterized, and the adsorption of fluoride is investigated. The results show the diameter of SF-CNTs nanofibers is the biggest for 419 ± 24.8 nm at the 12.0 wt% SF concentration, and its pore size distribution 14.86 ± 3.90 μm. After fluoride adsorption, the fluorine adsorption reaches saturation at 15 min and its value decreases 26.41 ppm for sample with 8.0 wt% SF concentration and 5 layer PP nonwoven. This research indicates SF-CNTs-PP nonwovens are promising candidate materials for fluoride removal.

Keywords:

• electrospinning
• silk fibroin
• carbon nanotube
• nonwoven

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by Industrial Research Institute of Nonwovens & Technical Textiles, Qingdao University.

Disclosure statment

The authors confirm that there are no known conflicts of interest associated with this publication and there has been no significant financial support for this work that could have influenced its outcome.

Author contributions

M.L. carried out experiments and wrote the manuscript; H.L. participated in experiments; J.M. designed experiments and revised the manuscript; F.P. and X.N. revised the manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by Qingdao Innovation Project (17-1-1-68-jch), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2016M592141), Shandong Postdoctoral Innovation Project (201603067), National Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program for College Students (S201911065057).