Fabrication, characterization and application of electrospun polysulfone membrane for phosphate ion removal in real samples

Due to simplicity and flexibility, electrospinning technique can produce many types of fibers at nanoscale via different operational parameters for various applications including industrial wastewater treatment, air filtration and so on. Nonetheless, the study on the electrospinning operational parameter is very limited and many researchers are still using trial-and-error method to design their targeted fiber. In this study, a series of electrospun polysulfone (PSF; 20% w/v) nanofibrous membranes that made up from different ratios of dimethylformamide (DMF) and tetrahydrofuran (THF) mixtures in order to achieve different dielectric constant (ϵ) of solvent system. The fabricated PSF nanofibers were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), tensile strength tester and contact angle measurement. The THF-DMF binary solvent system with ϵ = 16.33 to 27.97 produced a smooth surface electrospun PSF nanofibers, while THF mono solvent system (ϵ = 7.60) and DMF mono solvent system (ϵ = 36.70) produced a rough and porous surface electrospun PSF nanofibers. This finding is contradicted with the common finding in which only a binary solvent is able to fabricate a rough or grooved surface electrospun nanofibers. In addition, the dielectric constant can be another key factor, besides boiling point and solubility of binary solvent system, that induces phase separation in the polymeric solution jet and eventually fabricate non-smooth surface electrospun nanofibers. The fabricated electrospun PSF nanofibrous membranes showed high efficiency in phosphate removal.