Highly efficient and robust electrospun nanofibers for selective removal of acid dye

The highly efficient and economic nylon-6 nanofibers without pre/post-electrospinning treatment were prepared for the fast and selective removal of anionic dye. i.e., Acid Blue 117 (AB 117), in just 25 min of contact. This is the first time the application of pure nylon-6 nanofibers for dye removal is reported. Nylon-6, in nanofibers form, possessed greater adsorption capability compared to its pellet form. The adsorption data fitted well to pseudo second order and Freundlich isotherm. Nylon-6 nanofibers showed excellent efficiency for AB117 in single and higher selectivity in binary component system. The nanofibers were also used as a membrane for removing AB117 from continuous streams by varying the number of layers. The maximum adsorption capacity in batch mode was found 58.8 mg/g and 0.321 mg/cm(2) in continuous mode. The proposed nanofibers offer maximum permeation flux of 113.2 L/m(2).h which is much higher than conventional nanofiltration membranes with 10 L/m(2).h.bar. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.