Poly (ethylene terephthalate) micro-nano fibrous membranes via optimized melt electrospinning for water filtration

Abstract

Melt electrospinning (MES) offers an eco-friendly and efficient method for the production of micro-nano fibers. However, micro-nano fibers production from poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) by MES is challenging due to poor conductivity and high viscosity melts. Here, we report an optimized MES method to create PET fibers with 665 nm average diameter, which was achieved by improving melt flow properties through the addition of a viscosity-reducing lubricant (pentaerythritol stearate) and optimized the spinneret design to generate stronger electric fields. Following this, a fibrous membrane was fabricated using vacuum assisted deposition flat-plate hot-pressing. The membrane exhibited a tensile strength of 14.5 MPa, buckling recovery at 50% buckling strain, and fatigue resistance over 100 cycles. Furthermore, the membrane exhibits water filtration performance with a flux of 7900 L·m⁻²·h^-1 and a filtration efficiency of over 95% at low driving pressures (≤20 kPa). This work has provided inspiration for designing melt electrospinning micro-nano fibers for environmental governance applications.

Keywords:

• Poly (ethylene terephthalate)
• melt electrospinning
• micro-nano fiber
• water filtration
• environmental friendliness

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Nos. 2022YFB3804903, 2022YFB3804900), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2232023Y-01), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 52103050 and 52273053), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2023TQ0054, 2023M740587) and the National Energy-Saving and Low-Carbon Materials Production and Application Demonstration Platform Program of China (TC220H06N).