Synthesis and Characterization of Polyester Based Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate Nanofiber Membrane for Water Treatment

Abstract This study focused on the development of nanofibrous composites for water filtration. The novel nanofiber composite membranes were developed using polyester with varying weight concentrations of Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate (EVA) at different blended ratios (10, 15, 20, and 30wt%) by electrospinning at an applied voltage of 15 KV, and a flow rate of 13 µl/min. The characterization of synthesized nanofiber composites was conducted using analytical techniques, including optical screening, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), tensile testing with a universal testing machine (UTM), and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The UTM result demonstrated that the nanofiber composite with concentrations of EVA of 10wt% and 15wt% showed the highest strengths of 43.2 and 43.1 N/mm2, respectively. However, the nanofiber with 30wt% efficiently removed 90% of the total dissolved solids (TDS) and bacterial contamination. Conclusively, the above findings have shown that increasing the percentage of polyester results in an increase in its mechanical strength. At the same time, a higher concentration of EVA is found to be more successful in eliminating total dissolved solids (TDS) and microbiological pollutants.