Thesis
Functionalized electrospun chitosan for water filtration
Master of Science (M.S.), Drexel University
May 2014
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/etd-4500
Abstract
Heavy metal ions in water sources pose a range of potential health risks. The ingestion of heavy metal ions can induce a wide variety of symptoms, from those similar to food poisoning at low concentrations, to death at higher concentrations. Therefore novel filtration systems for heavy metal ion removal are needed. For these reasons, electrospinning has been applied to a chitosan polymeric system to produce non-woven fibrous mats. Chitosan, the N-deacetylated derivative of chitin, is environmentally friendly, non-toxic, biodegradable, and anti-bacterial. Modified chitosan chemistries have been under investigation as a means of creating designed nanofibrous mats for multiple applications. However, an entirely new set of electrospinning parameters must be developed for each novel chemistry due to differences in solubility and viscosity. Therefore, a novel two-phase postprocessing technique has been developed to chemically functionalize the mats with carboxymethyl-, cyano-, and pyridine-groups without having to alter the electrospinning parameters. The observed fiber diameters were 131 74 nm, 85 29 nm, and 81 45 for the carboxymethyl-, cyano-, and pyridine-modified chitosan, respectively. The addition of these groups should increase its affinity for heavy metal ions, allowing the post-processed nanofibrous mats to act as a filtration membrane to easily remove heavy metal ions from water. To evaluate this hypothesis, gravity filtration experiments were conducted on as spun and functionalized mats in order to evaluate the ability to remove Cu²⁺ ions from water solutions. Filtration results showed that only the cyano-functionalized chitosan removed enough Cu²⁺ ions to be below the United States Environmental Protection Agency's maximum contaminant level goal of 1.3 ppm.
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Details
- Title
- Functionalized electrospun chitosan for water filtration
- Creators
- Amanda Catherine Toth - DU
- Contributors
- Caroline L. Schauer (Advisor) - Drexel University (1970-)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Master of Science (M.S.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Resource Type
- Thesis
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Materials (Science and) Engineering (Metallurgical Engineering) (1970-2026); College of Engineering (1970-2026); Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 4500; 991014632515704721