Nylon 6/CHITOSAN Nanofibrous Structures for Filtration (original) (raw)

This research is to investigate nanoporous electrospun structures obtained from electrospinning technique for using as filters. In the research, Nylon 6 and the blend of Nylon 6/chitosan nanostructures were fabricated from polymer solutions at various concentrations ranging from 30 to 35% w/v. The kinematic viscosity of the Nylon 6 and Nylon 6/Chitosan solutions was determined by using Cannon-Fenske (Reverse Flow) viscometer while the morphology of nanofibers was observed with Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The results showed that the solutions with a higher viscosity yielded fibers with larger diameters and pores. Although the solution of nylon 6/chitosan at a ratio of 50:1 (30% wt nylon) had the highest viscosity in the experiment, the formation of small sized ultrafine fiber group generated even much smaller pores. In the filtration test, the flow rate of the suspension of polystyrene particles in water was adjusted to 8 µm/s and the nanofibrous filters with the thickness in the range of 0.1±0.02 mm were used. The results showed complete removals of polystyrene particles when using nanofibrous filters for both pure Nylon 6 and Nylon 6/chitosan nanofibers, being compared with the filter paper and commercial nylon fabric with No. 80/55 and No. 150/35, which showed much lower performance, i.e. filtration efficiency of 2.71 to 14.50%.