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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