Production of polystyrene nanofibers for adsorption of mineral oils derived from petroleum

Abstract

Technological innovations can offer a multitude of benefits to modern society; however, they often fail to fully address the desired requirements for the specific applications, particularly when considering environmental impacts of solid waste. Expanded polystyrene (EPS) waste exemplifies this challenge, highlighting the urgent need for innovative and effective solutions to address the existing gaps in conventional technologies. In this regard, chemical dissolution methods using organic solvents emerge as a viable approach for polymer recovery and impurity removal. This study focused on the preparation of EPS nanofibers from polymeric solutions with concentrations of 10% (EPS_10) and 15% (w/w) (EPS_15) in chloroform, employing the solution blow spinning technique. The resulting nanofibers were then characterized morphologically through scanning electron microscopy and evaluated for their oil adsorption efficiency. Overall, the EPS_10 and EPS_15 nanofibers displayed average diameters of 149.7 and 330.5 nm, respectively, and achieved maximum adsorption capacities of 37.0 and 70.1 g/g for petroleum jelly, and 33.3 and 48.9 g/g for lubricating oil. These results emphasize the transformative potential of EPS nanofibers as high-performance sorbent materials, offering promising opportunities for their application in oil spill remediation and wastewater treatment. By addressing a critical environmental issue, this work contributes to developing a solution for managing solid waste and mitigating its ecological impact.