In situ polyaniline polymerization on electrospun cellulose acetate nanofibers derived from recycled waste filter butts of cigarettes for the enhanced removal of methyl orange and rhodamine

Abstract

In this study, waste cigarette butts (CBs) were processed to produce electrospun cellulose acetate (CA) nanofibrous membranes modified with polyaniline (PANI) via chemical oxidation polymerization. This cost-effective method of preparing CA coated with PANI was initially investigated by comparing CA, CA-PANI, and CA-dPANI (as deprotonated PANI) for the rapid adsorption of cationic and anionic dyes. The results depicted CA-PANI with the highest dye removal capacity. As the optimum material, CA-PANI was applied to remove methyl orange (MO) and rhodamine chloride (RC) dye from an aqueous phase. Essential factors: contact time, solution pH, initial dye concentration, nanofiber dosage, and temperature of solution were evaluated with maximum equilibrium adsorption capacity and removal percentage achieved for MO as 24.87 mg/g and 99 %, for RC as 6.93 mg/g and 55 %, respectively. The adsorptive experimental data for both dyes best fitted the pseudo-second-order kinetic, intraparticle diffusion, and Freundlich models. Moreover, the thermodynamics result indicated the adsorption processes were exothermic and spontaneous in nature. Reusability studies also showed the stable performance of CA-PANI material for up to 7 adsorption-desorption cycles. The high dye removal efficiency suggests that the adsorbent material in the water filtration of azo dyes.