The Study of Competitive Adsorption of Heavy Metal Ions from Aqueous Solution by Aminated Polyacrylonitrile Nanofiber Mats

Aminated polyacrylonitrile(APAN) nanofiber mat was a surface modification of electrospun polyacrylonitrile (e-spun PAN) with diethylenetriamine (DETA). It was developed for the removal of Ag(I), Cu(II), Pb(II) and Fe(II) from aqueous solution. The results showed that adsorbent has the highest adsorption capacity for Ag(I) and Cu(II) in ions mixture system. The parameters of adsorption behavior were also investigated, such as pH-value, initial concentration and contact time. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were applied to analyze the experimental data. Desorption experiments by elution of the adsorbent with a nitric acid show that the APAN nanofiber mats could be reused. APAN nanofiber mat has been shown to have the potential to be used as an effective adsorbent for the removal as well as selective recovery of heavy metal ions in water or wastewater treatment.