Integrated adsorption and photocatalytic removal of methylene blue dye from aqueous solution by hierarchical Nb2O5@PAN/PVDF/ANO composite nanofibers

This work presents the development of hierarchical niobium pentoxide (Nb2O5)-based composite nanofiber membranes for integrated adsorption and photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) pollutants from aqueous solutions. The Nb2O5 nanorods were vertically grown using a hydrothermal process on a base electrospun nanofibrous membrane made of polyacrylonitrile/polyvinylidene fluoride/ammonium niobate (V) oxalate hydrate (Nb2O5@PAN/PVDF/ANO). They were characterized using field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. These composite nanofibers possessed a narrow optical bandgap energy of 3.31 ​eV and demonstrated an MB degradation efficiency of 96 ​% after 480 ​min contact time. The pseudo-first-order kinetic study was also conducted, in which Nb2O5@PAN/PVDF/ANO nanofibers have kinetic constant values of 1.29 ​× ​10−2 ​min−1 and 0.30 ​× ​10−2 ​min−1 for adsorption and photocatalytic degradation of MB aqueous solutions, respectively. These values are 17.7 and 7.8 times greater than those of PAN/PVDF/ANO nanofibers without Nb2O5 nanostructures. Besides their outstanding photocatalytic performance, the developed membrane materials exhibit advantageous characteristics in recycling, which subsequently widen their practical use in environmental remediation applications.