Preparation of Polyacrylic Acid (PAA) / Dextran Nanofibres Modified with Aniline to the Removal of Metal (Pb) from Aqueous Solutions

In this paper, mesoporous PAA/dextran-polyaniline core-shell nanofibers were prepared with the combination of electrospinning and in-situ polymerization methods and their heavy metal adsorption ability was investigated. The result showed that PAA and dextran can be fully crosslinked through the esterification reaction via a heat-treatment method. Polyaniline with flake-like structure was deposited on the nanofiber surface resulted in high surface area and mesoporous structure of nanofibers. The number of pores was increased by removing the calcium carbonate nanoparticles incorporated on the nanofiber surface during the polymerization process. Investigation of the variables affecting the adsorption process showed that the adsorption efficiency increased with increasing adsorbent and gradually reached a constant value. As the concentration of lead metal decreased, the percentage of removal decreased and the amount of removed metal varied at different pH values. HT-PAA / dextran nanofibers showed relatively high adsorption capacity for Pb, which increased to 951.1 mg / g after aniline polymerization on the surface of the nanofibers. The synthesized nanofibers showed a high maximum adsorption capacity of 1111.11 mg/g for Pb obtained from the Langmuir isotherm model.