Wastewater Treatment with PVC Electrospun Nanofibrous Membrane

Abstract

Water pollution has been an important issue in recent era. Water filtration/purification with recent technology is the latest demand in today's economy. The advancement in filtration technology has invigorated extensive awareness in engineered nanomaterials, such as electrospun nanofibers for supplying potable drinking water with low investment. Polymeric nanofibrous membranes have been receiving extensive attention for their applications in filtration technology. Many methods, such as self-assembly, phase separation and drawing are being used to fabricate polymer nanofibers. However, due to the unique features, electrospinning is a method of choice for fabricating nanofibrous membrane in a very short period of time with low investment. In this study, an electrospun nanofibrous membrane was prepared via an electrospinning method for filtration. City wastewater (Tabuk) was chosen for filtration process. The major parameters of wastewater treatments were determined. These parameters were pH, conductivity, total dissolved solids, turbidity, chemical oxygen demand, total suspended solids, dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, phosphate, ammonia, oil and greases. The static water contact angles of all samples were also measured by means of a goniometer to determine whether membrane was hydrophobic or hydrophilic. The Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy analysis of samples was also carried out to study the molecular components and structure.