Ultrafine polystyrene nanofibers and its application in nanofibrous membranes

• The ultrafine 19 nm-diameter PS nanofibers are prepared by the facile approach.
• The molecular weight and solvents play important roles in the nanofiber formation.
• The novel nanofibrous membranes are fabricated from PS nanofiber dispersion.
• The membranes have a high porosity up to 87% and a super-hydrophobic surface.
• The membranes present fast and high-efficiency absorption capacity.

Polymer nanofibers have raising increasing interest for a wide class of applications due to the excellent properties. Here novel ultrafine (about 19 nm) nanofibers are prepared from very dilute polystyrene (PS) solution via a facile approach based on the fast freeze technique. The molecular weight (Mw) and solvents have significant influences on the nanofiber formation. The resulting PS nanofibers are consisted of several inter-connected PS chains and monodispersed in ethanol solution. Meanwhile, the nanofibers are used to fabricate the high porous membrane by direct filtration. The as-fabricated membranes have a high porosity up to 87%, a super-hydrophobic and super-lipophilic surface, as well as show a fast and high-efficiency adsorption for methylene blue. The newly developed PS nanofibers have a great potential application in nanofabrication and wastewater treatment.

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