Systematic hydrolysis of PIM-1 and electrospinning of hydrolyzed PIM-1 ultrafine fibers for an efficient removal of dye from water

In this study, the Polymer of Intrinsic Microporosity (PIM-1) was systematically hydrolyzed in the presence of sodium hydroxide by varying the concentration of base, washing procedure and the time of the reaction. The chemical structure analyses confirmed that PIM-1 could be hydrolyzed by 65% up to 99% conversion depending on the synthesis procedure. The hydrolyzed PIM-1 samples have shown improved solubility which facilitates the fabrication of hydrolyzed PIM-1 ultrafine fibers by electrospinning technique. Extensive optimization studies were performed for the electrospinning of uniform and bead-free fibers from hydrolyzed PIM-1 with different degree of hydrolysis (65%, 86%, 94% and 99%). The electrospun hydrolysed PIM-1 fibrous samples have average fiber diameters (AFD) ranging from 0.58 ± 0.15 μm to 1.21 ± 0.15 μm, depending on the polymer concentration and applied electrospinning parameters. After electrospinning, self-standing hydrolyzed PIM-1 fibrous membranes were obtained which is useful as a filtering material for the adsorption of organic dyes from wastewater. Here, the capability of hydrolyzed PIM-1 electrospun fibrous membranes for the removal of dyes from aqueous solutions was investigated by using a batch adsorption process. The maximum adsorption capacity of fully hydrolyzed PIM-1 fibers was found 157 ± 16 mg g^{− 1} for Methylene Blue and 4 mg g^{− 1} for Congo red when the adsorption was conducted by 20 mg L^{− 1} dye solution without using any dilution. Moreover, maximum dye adsorption was also studied by using concentrated Methylene Blue solutions showing up to 272 mg g^{− 1} adsorption maximum. In addition, the self-standing fibrous hydrolyzed PIM-1 membrane was employed to separate Methylene Blue from an aqueous system by filtration without the necessity of additional driving force.