Electrospining: A review of the application prospects of electrospinning membranes in textile wastewater treatment

Background

Water pollution is one of the many environmental issues that has surfaced in recent years due to overcrowding, urbanization, increase in various industrial and human activities, landfills, mining activities, and growth of municipal wastewater. Huge amounts of various toxic pollutants are discharged into water resources every day, causing a growing water pollution problem that contaminates water bodies and damages the environment. As a result, water supplies are contaminated with various pollutants, including oil, microorganisms, viruses, pharmaceutical waste, organic and inorganic pollutants, and nanoparticles. Dyes and heavy metal ions are considered to be the major water pollutants. Water pollution is one of the most important worldwide issues currently due to the lack of adequate water sources. By 2025, about 3.5 billion people around the world will face fresh water shortages. Therefore, researchers are working hard to create sustainable, affordable, and alternative solutions to treat or recycle wastewater.

The main point of this paper

Principle and application prospects of electrospinning technology:

Electrospinning technology is a method of fiberizing polymer materials through high-voltage electric fields, which can produce nano-scale fibers with diameters ranging from a few nanometers to a few microns

This technology has the advantages of simple equipment, low cost, a wide variety of spinnable materials, and controllable process. It has become one of the main ways to prepare nanofiber materials

Application of electrospinning technology in textile wastewater treatment:

The textile industry is one of the main contributors to wastewater. The fiber materials produced by electrospinning technology have potential as wastewater treatment adsorbents and can effectively remove petroleum, dyes, heavy metals, etc.

Electrospinning nanofiber membranes (NFMs) have shown great potential in environmental treatment due to their high specific surface area, high porosity, easy preparation and scalability

Coupling of electrospinning technology and biohybrid materials:

Electrospinning technology and bio The combination of bio-hybrid materials solves the potential defects of traditional biomaterials such as low activity, poor diffusion, and loss of biological activity

Using microbial cells (bacteria, algae, yeast, etc.) through fiber embedding, microtubule embedding, co-electrospinning and other methods, the advanced technology of constructing bio-hybrid fibers has been realized

Progress in the application of electrospinning technology in environmental remediation:

The application of electrospun NFMs in environmental remediation includes the adsorption of organic dyes, heavy metal ions, antibiotics and other drugs, the elimination of bacteria, air purification, etc.

Technical challenges and future development directions:

The challenges faced by electrospun NFMs in the field of environmental remediation include improving adsorption efficiency, recycling capacity and reducing costs

Future development directions may include improving electrospinning technology to improve the performance of fibers, and developing new materials and modification methods to enhance their efficiency in wastewater treatment

Application and Challenges of Electrospinning Technology in Textile Wastewater Treatment

Technical advantages:

Electrospinning technology can produce fibers with diameters ranging from micrometers to nanometers, with high specific surface area, high porosity and high adsorption capacity.

This technology has a wide range of raw materials, adjustable fiber structure, strong scalability of preparation technology, and high cost-effectiveness.

Environmental remediation applications:

The combination of electrospinning technology and biohybrid materials solves the defects of traditional biotechnology, such as low cell activity, easy inactivation and poor diffusivity.

The biohybrid fibers constructed by electrospinning using microbial cells (bacteria, algae, yeast, etc.) show efficient and continuous adsorption and degradation performance for pollutants such as heavy metals, organic matter, nitrogen-containing compounds, surfactants, etc. in wastewater.

Water treatment methods:

Nanofiber membranes prepared by electrospinning technology can be used in water treatment for various methods such as physical adsorption, chemical oxidation and biodegradation.

This technology can prepare functionally active polymer materials, such as zein nanofiber membranes, which have adsorption capacity for colored dyes.

Removal efficiency:

Electrospinning nanofiber membranes show excellent removal efficiency for a variety of heavy metal ions, such as Cr6+, Hg2+, Pb2+, Cd2+, Ni2+, etc.

This technology has also been used to remove antibiotics such as tetracycline from water, with high adsorption capacity and fast adsorption rate.

Challenges of industrialization:

Electrospinning technology faces technical barriers from laboratory scale to industrialization. Problems that need to be solved include improving production efficiency, reducing costs, and improving fiber strength and wear resistance.

Environmental protection and sustainability:

Electrospinning technology helps reduce dependence on traditional purification technologies, reduce resource and energy consumption, promote water reuse and reduce waterway pollution.

Summarize

Access to safe drinking water has been a serious problem around the world for a long time. Currently, one of the major sources of pollution is textile printing and dyeing wastewater. Various combinations of biological, physical and chemical methods are used in traditional technologies to treat textile wastewater; however, these methods require a lot of capital and operating expenses. Membrane-based technology provides one of the best alternatives for large-scale environmentally sustainable treatment processes. In this regard, nanofibers provide a new dimension to the problem of water filtration. These nanofibers have advantages such as large surface area, strength and ideal pore size. A simpler and more practical method to manufacture nanofibers is electrospinning, which allows us to adjust the pore size of nanofibers. In the past few decades, countless advances have been made in the field of electrospun nanofibrous membranes. From the current development and application, nanofibrous membranes have incredible prospects in water and wastewater treatment. This technology provides a large number of nanomaterials with unique properties such as eco-friendliness, degradability, renewability, non-toxicity, mechanical and thermal properties, as well as their availability, long-term durability and cost-effectiveness.