COLLEGE OF TEXTILE AND CLOTHING ENGINEERING

MODERN SILK NATIONAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY

Title of Research
Fabrication of composite nanofibers for Arsenic
remediation from aqueous solution

Mujahid Mehdi
Supervisor : Prof. KQ Zhang
[20177215005]
 ➢ Introduction

➢ Literature Review

Contents ➢ Scope of study

➢ Research Aims & Objectives

➢ Methodology

➢ References
➢ Introduction
Heavy metals are contaminants with potential toxicity to living organisms, when present above
their permissible concentrations such as: arsenic (As), Antimony (Sb), Lead (Pb), chromium (Cr),
cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), zinc (Zn), and copper (Cu).

Need of Water and arsenic:

✓Water is known as life and one of the most consumable compounds of the earth.

✓Also earth is now only planet which contains about 70 % of water.

✓Arsenic (As) water contamination has become a worldwide concern. [3]

✓Arsenic contamination is largely found naturally and no preventive measures can usually be
taken, so only way to minimize the effect with suitable technologies. [7]

✓In natural water, arsenic exists as arsenite [As(III)) and arsenate (As(V)]; of these forms,
As(III) is more mobilized and toxic than As(V) [5,6].
➢ Effects of Heavy metals

➢ Decreases soil quality

Plant species ➢ Affects plant growth [10]
➢ Increase aqueous toxicity
[9]

Environment
Heavy Aquatic
animals
Metals

➢ various cancerous and

➢ Increased level of
noncancerous health
danger to life of aquatic
effects, including
Human animals[8]
bladder and lung cancer,
high blood pressure, beings
diabetes and skin. [3]
➢Methods for Heavy metal Removal

Coprecipitation

Photocatalysis

Ion exchange

Membrane filtration

Adsorption
➢Why Adsorption ??
Adsorption is a surface-based process, where a film of adsorbate is created on the surface of
absorbent . Its highly acknowledged process due to its:

✓Simplicity

✓ Easy to operation,

✓Many availability of cheap materials as

adsorbents,

✓Superior capacity to treat heavy metals in

more concentrated from

➢ Why Nanofiber?
➢ Literature Review
➢ Literature Review
➢ Literature Review
➢ Literature Review
➢ Scope of Study

✓ The proposed work may help developing easy, and reliable method of treating
effective arsenic removal through electrospun composite nanofibers of chitosan and
PAN polymers.

✓ The work may be adapted to industrial scale from laboratory scale experiments by
integrating composite nanofiber membranes to filtration unit in order to achieve
pure water through economical materials.

✓ Nanofiber’s morphology and physical parameters such as surface area, porosity are
main factors in making promising material for adsorption studies; therefore, this
work covers complete scope of study in engineering and other aspects of science
and technology
 ➢ Research Objectives
Primary
To produce a cost effective, simple and efficient wastewater treatment
system using composite nanofibrous membrane.

Secondary
✓ Fabrication of ZrO2/PAN and Fe2O3/Chitosan composite nanofiber
membrane via co-axial Electrospinning.
✓ Characterization of ZrO2/PAN and Fe2O3/Chitosan composite nanofiber
before and after arsenic removal.
✓ Determination of removal efficiency of arsenic from aqueous solution.
✓ Calculation of adsorption kinetics and isotherms.
➢ Methodology

 Stepwise Research activities

Report writing

Evaluation
and data
interpretation
Characterizations

Adsorption
And Optimizing
Electrospinning parameters

Solution preparation
and
Trial Optimizing
experiments
Literature
For best composition
review
➢ Trial Experiments for Best Adsorption Composition

✓ZrO2/PAN and ZrO2/Chitosan

✓Fe2O3/PAN and Fe2O3/Chitosan

✓ZrO2/PAN and Fe2O3/Chitosan

✓Fe2O3/PAN and ZrO2/Chitosan

➢ Solution preparation

• Chitosan based polymer (CH), is dissolved in solvent known as Acetic acid OR TFA
(Trifluoroacetic acid) on magnetic stirrer machine for 4 – 24 hours.

• Polyacrylonitrile (PAN), is dissolved in solvents known as DMF (Dimethylformamide)

on magnetic stirrer machine for 24 hours.
➢ Electrospinning

• Electrospinning, is a fiber production method which uses electric force to draw charged
threads of polymer solutions or polymer melts up to fiber diameters in the order of some
hundred nanometers.
➢ Adsorption Parameters

Heavy metal
• Arsenic (III & V)

• 5 mg – 50 mg
Mass of fiber

• 1-60 min
Contact time

• 1-11
pH

• 30 - 60 ºC
temperature
➢ Characterization

Tensile ICP-MS
SEM & TEM FTIR Analyze Heavy
strength metals
➢ Characterization

XRD XPS TG/DTA

 ➢ References
[1] Simpi, D., Chandrashekarappa, K. N., ET, P., & Anil, N. P. (2011). Analysis of Water quality using Physico-Chemical Parameters Hosahalli tank in
Shimoga. Global Journal of Science Frontier Research, 11(3).
[2] Patil, P. N., Sawant, D. V., & Deshmukh, R. N. (2012). Physico-chemical parameters for testing of water-A review. International Journal of Environmental
Sciences, 3(3), 1194
[3] Luo, J., Luo, X., Hu, C., Crittenden, J. C., & Qu, J. (2016). Zirconia (zro2) embedded in carbon nanowires via electrospinning for efficient arsenic removal from
water combined with dft studies. Acs Applied Materials & Interfaces, 8(29), 18912.
[4] An, B.; Steinwinder, T. R.; Zhao, D. Selective removal of arsenate from drinking water using a polymeric ligand exchanger. Water Res. 2005, 39 (20), 4993-
5004.
[5] Choong, T. S.; Chuah, T.; Robiah, Y.; Koay, F. G.; Azni, I. Arsenic toxicity, health hazards and removal techniques from water: an overview. Desalination 2007,
217 (1), 139-166.
[6] Matschullat, J. Arsenic in the geosphere-a review. Sci. Total Environ. 2000, 249 (1), 297-312.
[7] Malik, A. H., Khan, Z. M., Mahmood, Q., Nasreen, S., & Bhatti, Z. A. (2009). Perspectives of low cost arsenic remediation of drinking water in pakistan and
other countries. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 168(1), 1-12.
[08] Khayatzadeh J., Abbasi E. (2010) .The effect of heavy metals on aquatic animals. The 1 st international applied Geological Congress.
[09] Baby, J., Raj, J. S., Biby, E. T., Sankarganesh, P., Jeevitha, M. V., & Ajisha, S. U., et al. (2011). Toxic effect of heavy metals on aquatic
environment. International Journal of Biological & Chemical Sciences,4(4).
[10] Mohammad R S B, Amir H H, Jafar N, Iraj M, Faramarz M,(2015) ,The effect of soil properties and plant species on the absorption of heavy metals in
industrial sewage contaminated soil: A case study of Eshtehard Industrial Park ,Bulgarian Chemical Communications