Electrospun poly(2-aminothiazole)/cellulose acetate fiber membrane for removing Hg(II) from water

Fiber membrane adsorbent not only has the advantage of ease of handling, but also offers high specific surface area that can benefit the adsorption process when compared with powdered adsorbent. In this work, a poly(2-aminothiazole) ( PAT)/cellulose acetate ( CA) composite fiber membrane is prepared by a coaxial electrospinning process, and used as adsorbent for removing Hg(II) from water. The adsorption processes are investigated as functions of pH value, contact time and temperature. The results suggest that the Hg( II) adsorption is preferred to be conducted at pH 6.5 and the adsorption is a monolayer process through chemical interaction. The maximum adsorption capacity in theory is 177 mg/g at 298 K with a very low PAT percentage ( 6.5 wt %), which is much higher than that of the nanoparticle-type PAT through conversion. Desorption results exhibit excellent reusability of the composite fiber membrane. (C) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.