Kinetics, isotherms, and thermodynamics studies for electrospun polyacrylonitrile membrane loaded with iron and cobalt nanoparticles used to remove water contamination

In this work, nanocomposite membrane-induced nanoparticles (cobalt–iron) have been successfully fabricated. The morphology observations revealed that the average fiber diameters gradually decreased. The presence of nanoparticles (iron–cobalt) was validated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis, indicating the successful modification. Parameters such as PH, contact time, sorbent mass, and temperature were examined to study their effect on adsorption behavior. The hydrophobicity of the composite membrane was measured using the water contact angle (WCA) test. The results showed that the WCA of obtained samples improved, where the highest WCA was around 146.45°, proving that the fabricated nanofibers were hydrophobic. The higher wicking height for PAN@Fe2 and PAN@Co2 was revealed to be (67 mm,61 mm) and (55 mm,50 mm) for soybean and motor oils. A modified new composite was successfully applied to absorb oils with a significant sorption capacity for different common oils and organic solvents. Besides, it exhibited good reusability and repeatability. All samples obeyed the pseudo-second model with a coefficient value R 2  > 0.999. The isotherm adsorption for obtained nanocomposite samples was well-fitted with the Langmuir model with a maximum reach in the range of 51.02 g/g–149.25 g/g for n-hexane and motor oil, respectively. Furthermore, the thermodynamic study revealed that the adsorption process was spontaneous and exothermic. This work is environmentally friendly, economical, and practical. It can produce superhydrophobic nanocomposite membranes on a large-scale production, which holds great potential in oil–water adsorption applications.