Fabrication of functionalized electrospun carbon nanofibers for enhancing lead-ion adsorption from aqueous solutions

Electrospinning technique is a simple and cheap method for fabrication of electrospun nanofibers (ENFs), which in turn can converted into electrospun carbon nanofibers (ECNFs) by carbonization process. The controlling of the ECNFs properties (e.g. surface area, porosity, diameters) during fabrication, make it superior over the other carbon nanomaterials. The aim of our study is to modify the surface of ECNFs to increase its hydrophilicity and in turn its efficiency in removing lead ions (Pb²⁺) from aqueous systems. The surface modification was carried out in two steps starting from oxidation of pristine ECNFs to produce oxidized ECNFs (o-ECNFs), followed by covalently bonded of melamine, and poly(m-phenylene diamine) for forming melamine-functionalized ECNFs (melam-ECNFs) and poly(m-phenylene diamine)-functionalized ECNFs (PmPDA-ECNFs), respectively. The as-prepared materials were characterized in routine way. The ability of the as-prepared materials towards adsorption of Pb²⁺ ions as heavy metal was investigated with the study of some factors such as pH solution, contact time, initial concentration and temperature. The adsorption process was analyzed isothermally, and kinetically. According to the values of the thermodynamic parameters, the adsorption of Pb²⁺ ions onto the functionalized ECNFs was endothermic and spontaneous, except with melam-ECNFs was exothermic.