Electrospun nanofiber polymer membranes for sustainable and efficient wastewater purification

Nanofiber membranes made of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) were investigated using the electrospinning method.Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) was used as a polymer substance in this study.The utilisation of electrospinning as a technique for producing nanofibers and other one-dimensional nanostructures is considered a straightforward and adaptable approach.The experiment involved the electrospinning of fibrous membranes.The electrospinning process was conducted with a voltage of 16 kV and a feeding rate of 1 ml/h.The distance between the syringe needle tip and the filter membrane was 10 cm.The membrane's wettability and morphology were assessed through contact angle and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) measurements.Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was employed to examine the membranes' functional groups and elemental composition to ascertain their effectiveness in water filtration.Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) was utilized as a standard solution.The results show that the synthesized PVDF-TiO 2 -PVP nanofiber has great potential for water filtering applications.The PVDF-TiO 2 -PVP membrane's contact angle was lowered to 117 degrees.As a result, the PVDF-TiO 2 -PVP membrane achieved its target water flux of 1806.14L/(m 2 .h),which is an improvement over previous tests.Compared to a polymeric membrane made of pure PVDF, the results suggest that adding additives improves filtration performance.