Preparation of aminated nanoporous nanofiber by solvent casting/porogen leaching technique and dye adsorption modeling

In this paper, nanoporous polyacrylonitrile/calcium carbonate (PAN/CaCO3) nanofiber was produced through a solvent casting/porogen leaching technique. Calcium carbonate (CaCO3) nanoparticle was extracted from PAN/CaCO3 nanofiber. The nanofiber was modified using triethylenetetriamine (TETA). The aminated nanoporous PAN (ANPAN) nanofiber was characterized by FTIR, SEM, AFM and DSC. The dye removal ability of ANPAN nanofiber from wastewater was investigated by studying the influence of adsorbent dosage, dye concentration, and solution pH on dye adsorption. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to build up the equation of dye removal efficiency from water with respect to operational conditions (adsorbent dosage, pH and dye concentration). The dye removal isotherm and kinetics followed the Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second order model respectively. The thermodynamic data indicated dye removal by ANPAN nanofiber was spontaneous, endothermic, and a physisorption reaction. The RSM data confirmed good agreements with the experimental results.