Preparation and characterization of polysaccharides/PVA blend nanofibrous membranes by electrospinning method

• Autor(a) principal: Santos, Carla
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: Silva, Carla J. S. M., Büttel, Zsófia, Guimarães, Rodrigo, Pereira, Sara B., Tamagnini, Paula, Zille, Andrea
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/25257
• topic: Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA); Chitosan; Cyanobacteria; Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS); Membrane; Electrospinning; Filtration; Chitosan (CS); Science & Technology

A series of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), PVA/chitosan (CS) and PVA/cyanobacterial extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) blended nanofibrous membranes were produced by electrospinning using a microfiltration poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) basal membrane, for potential applications in water filtration. Nanofibres were obtained from solutions of 20% (w/w) PVA with 1% (w/w) CS or EPS, using a weight ratio of 60/40. Blended nanofibres have shown a smooth morphology, no beads formation and diameters between 50 and 130 nm. Thermo-mechanical analysis demonstrated that there were inter and/or intramolecular hydrogen bonds between the molecules of PVA/CS and PVA/EPS in the blends. The electrospun blended PVA/EPS membrane showed better tensile mechanical properties when compared with PVA and PVA/CS, and resisted more against disintegration in the temperature range between 10 and 50 °C. Finally, the blended membranes have shown an increase in chromium binding capacity of 5%. This is the first successful report of a blended membrane of electrospinned cyanobacterial polysaccharide with PVA.