Effect of synthesis parameters of polypropylene melt blown nanofibers for oil sorption
Nanofiber is an effective oil sorbent for hydrocarbon crude oil spill clean-up operations. However, techniques to mass–produce nanofibers using melt blowing technique have not yet been fully developed to produce nanofibers with high oil sorption capacity. Subsequently, it needs a detailed study on t...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
2023
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/39056/1/24%20PAGES.pdf https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/39056/2/FULLTEXT.pdf |
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| Summary: | Nanofiber is an effective oil sorbent for hydrocarbon crude oil spill clean-up operations. However, techniques to mass–produce nanofibers using melt blowing technique have not yet been fully developed to produce nanofibers with high oil sorption capacity. Subsequently, it needs a detailed study on the correlation between production, structures, properties, and applications. Hence, this study focuses on nanofibers synthesis using polypropylene by varying melt blowing variables, i.e., melt flow rate, air pressure, and die-to-collector distance, with ranges of 1 - 5 Hz, 0.25 - 0.50 Mpa and 0.15 - 0.45 m respectively. This work studied the interaction between process variables and nanofibers' physical properties (average fiber diameter, specific surface area, pore volume, and average pore diameter) and the interaction between the nanofibers' physical properties and oil sorption capacity. The SEM and BET characterize the fiber's physical properties, and a standard method was used to quantify oil sorption capacity. The response surface methodology was used to analyze the interactions. In addition, selectivity studies over water were conducted using Pseudo Ideal Monolayer theory on heavy metals Pb2+. The results obtained for physical properties for average fiber diameter, specific surface area, pore volume, and average pore diameter were in the ranges of 370.84 - 1885.00 nm, 1.3669 - 4.3188 m2/g, 0.002143 - 0.08283 cm3/g, and 61.93 - 93.00 Å, respectively. The finding shows that the most significant factor for all responses is melt flow rate except for average pore diameter, where melt flow rate and die collector distance interaction are the most significant factors. The oil sorption capacity was in the range of 11.37 - 36 g/g, with which the highest value was obtained at 1 Hz, 0.45 m, and 0.5 Mpa due to voids among fibers by fiber entanglement induced by the die-to-collector distance. At a low solute concentration, the maximum preference for the Pb2+ was at a 9.0 x 10-5 mole fraction, and the adsorption capacity, Ns, was 5.0758 x 10-5 mg/g. These indicate that the selectivity towards Pb2+ is high, despite a low adsorption capacity, making the nanofibers effective for oil-water separation for an oil spill clean-up operation. This knowledge contribution provides an avenue for future research in adsorption studies for hydrocarbons, oil and heavy metals. |
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