3. Results and discussion

#### 3.1 Electrospinning and nanofibre stabilization

Mixed solutions of AL and PVA were prepared for the production of membranes for adsorption tests. Using the specified electrospinning parameters, it was possible to obtain steady nanofibre formation for periods of a few hours to produce thin nanofibrous mats. Those were thermally stabilized giving the nanofibres a brownish colour and more rigidity. Their immersion in a sodium citrate buffer finalized the stabilization process to provide fibres stability at various pHs enabling their use for adsorption. As shown in Figure 2, the stabilization process had a slight impact on the visual aspects of the membranes. However, the impact is more obvious when seen by scanning electron microscopy. Figure 2b shows that nanofibres of 183 � 5 nm in diameter were obtained by the electrospinning with a low number of beads or defects. This size does not technically correspond to nanofibres (0–100 nm), but the adsorption properties shall be akin to real nanofibres considering the small difference. Figure 2d shows the nanofibres after a thermal process. This image shows a similar nanofibrous aspect with small variations of the nanofibre diameter (156 � 5 nm). However, nanofibres seem to be closer to each other with slight cross-linking giving it

3.2 General adsorption

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.88621

contaminants (see Table 3).

Table 2.

33

The adsorption tests were first conducted for FLX since it has the most potential for adsorption. Therefore, 25mg of AL:PVA nanofibres were used to adsorb 50 ppm of FLX in a 50 mL solution. The test lasted 150 min with a sample collected at the beginning and at the end. Table 2 shows the results obtained for this adsorption test. For comparison purposes of the adsorption, the same test was also carried out using commercial adsorbents. However, considering the smaller size of the commercial adsorbent, adjustments were necessary to conduct adsorption tests without any bias. Hence, the volume of the solution was reduced to 10 mL and the concentration was risen to 250 ppm to keep the same mass of FLX (2.5 mg solution) for the same mass of adsorbents. Therefore, the maximum adsorption capacity obtainable for each test was 100 mg/g. The summary of these results is available in Table 2. As expected, unfunctionalized silica adsorbents (Siliaflash® and fumed silica) had low adsorption potential for FLX. This is due to the lack of functional groups for adsorption and/or ionic charges. Due to its ion-exchange properties, Valfor® had a better adsorption propensity than silica. However, considering the exchange mechanism (exchange with a sodium ion from the adsorbent) and the size of the FLX molecules, it is possible that the adsorption was limited by the number of available sites and competition between FLX molecules. This type of sorbent might be more appropriate for metal ions [33]. Both ion-exchange resins had good adsorption capacities. Both being cation exchange resins and strongly acidic, they possessed functional groups (sulfate) appropriate for the adsorption of ionic molecules such as alkaline pharmaceutical residues. It is therefore encouraging that a biosorbent made of lignin can yield similar or better adsorption capacities than commercial sorbents. For a potential application in wastewater treatments, it is important to evaluate its capacity to adsorb multiple and various contaminants at the same time. Hence, the adsorption capacities of the developed nanofibres were compared with four contaminants, fluoxetine (antidepressant), venlafaxine (antidepressant), carbamazepine (anticonvulsant) and ibuprofen (anti-inflammatory). The adsorption was evaluated separately and simultaneously to detect possible competitions between

Sorption Capacities of a Lignin-Based Electrospun Nanofibrous Material for Pharmaceutical…

The contaminants having the most affinity for the membranes were in the decreasing order FLX, VEN, CAR and IBU. IBU and CAR had a low affinity for the nanofibres with almost no adsorption in simultaneous adsorption. This follows the logical assumption that could be made from the structures of the molecules and their chemical properties. For instance, both FLX and VEN are alkaline pharmaceuticals that are easily protonated at a neutral pH. However, fluoxetine has more aromatic rings and possesses Fluor promoting hydrogen bonding and π-stacking. For CAR and IBU, the molecules are respectively neutral and anionic at pH 7 which

Adsorbent Adsorption capacity (mg/g)

Adsorption capacity comparison of AL:PVA membranes with commercially available adsorbents.

AL:PVA nanofibres 78.24 1.35 Amberlyst® <sup>15</sup> 80.96 0.35 Dowex® Marathon® <sup>C</sup> 77.03 0.94 Valfor® <sup>100</sup> 49.00 4.39 Fumed silica 8.54 0.62 Siliaflash® F60 4.25 0.35

Figure 2. Images of AL:PVA nanofibres after electrospinning (a), after thermal treatment (c) and after final chemical treatment (e) and corresponding MEB images at 2500 (b, d and f, respectively).

rigidity. With the chemical stabilization (Figure 2f), the cross-linking is obvious due to swelling and fusing of nanofibres (188 10 nm). However, it should be emphasized that this kind of treatment often causes the loss of porosity of the material. In fact, without the thermal process, the acid treatment causes the nanofibres to completely fuse together lowering the porosity of the material [26, 32].

Interestingly, humidity had a real impact on the different steps of electrospinning. In fact, at low humidity (e.g., 10%), it was possible to electrospin, but the efficiency was lower. This might be due to the fast evaporation of the solvent during electrospinning which caused the drop of polymers at the tip of the needle to dry before electrospinning or the electrospinning jet to break before reaching the collector surface. The recovery of nanofibres was also more difficult due to higher adherence to the metal plates. At higher humidity (between 30 and 40%), the electrospinning resulted in a larger nanofibre mat surface area on the collector, which was easily peeled off, almost without the use of a razor blade. The advantages of the higher humidity also appeared during the stabilization step. Indeed, a higher humidity reduced the drying speed of the membranes, but also reduced their stickiness to the collector plate. It is therefore important to control the humidity within a certain range to achieve good nanofibre mat formation and easy processability.

Sorption Capacities of a Lignin-Based Electrospun Nanofibrous Material for Pharmaceutical… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.88621
