Sustainable nanofibrous membrane for microplastics filtration
Kandiyil JURAIJ, Sumayya M. ANSARI, Akmal NAZIR, Muhammad Z. IQBAL
Abstract. Microplastics (MPs) pollution poses a global environmental threat, and filtration using sustainable polymer membranes has emerged as a promising remediation approach. Electrospun nanofibrous membranes (ENMs), produced via electrospinning, offer high porosity and tunable surface functionalities, making them strong candidates. This work presents the fabrication of novel composite PEF/GO ENMs using next-generation poly(ethylene furanoate) (PEF) and graphene oxide (GO) to address MPs contamination. Among the fabricated ENMs, the composite electrospun nanofibrous membrane with 1 phr GO (PEF/GO composite ENM) was identified as optimal, exhibiting the smallest fiber diameter and favorable fiber morphology. Ethanol treatment significantly enhanced mechanical properties and improved hydrophilicity. The ethanol-treated, optimized PEF/GO composite ENM displayed superhydrophilicity, with complete wetting within a few seconds, and it demonstrated superior mechanical and permeation performance compared to solvent-treated PEF. The optimized composite membrane showed a 48% improvement in water flux compared to the PEF membrane at 1 bar pressure. It demonstrated efficient separation of polylactic acid (PLA) MPs from a synthesized PLA MPs dispersion (d50 = 12.3 μm), forming a removable cake layer and exhibiting reversible fouling. The membrane consistently achieved 99.9% PLA MPs removal over five filtration cycles. This study highlights the potential of a sustainable PEF/GO composite ENM for effective and reusable microplastics filtration.
Keywords
PEF, GO, Sustainability, Electrospun Membrane, Microplastics Separation
Published online 6/20/2026, 5 pages
Copyright © 2026 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA
Citation: Kandiyil JURAIJ, Sumayya M. ANSARI, Akmal NAZIR, Muhammad Z. IQBAL, Sustainable nanofibrous membrane for microplastics filtration, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 67, pp 527-531, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644904176-69
The article was published as article 69 of the book Climate Action and Sustainability
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
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