Abstract
Using biopolymers with natural products offers promising and effective materials with intrinsic and extrinsic properties that are utilized in several applications, Kumar et al (2023); Orisawayi et al (2024). Electrospinning is known for its unique and efficient performance in developing polymer-based nanofibers. It offers tunable and diverse properties such as good surface area, morphology, porosity, and fiber diameters, as shown during its fabrication process. Nathani et al (2024); Orisawayi et al (2024).
In this work, we have developed electrospun sodium alginate (SA) incorporated with pulverized Moringa oleifera seed powder (PMO) as a potential natural biosorbent material for water treatment applications. The developed fibers, when observed using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), presented pure sodium alginate with smooth fiber (SAF) characteristics of an average diameter of about 515.09 nm (±114.33). The addition of pulverized Moringa oleifera at 0.5%, 2%, 4%, 6%, and 8% (w/w) reduces the fiber diameter to an average of about 240 nm with a few spindle-like pulverized Moringa oleifera particles beads of 300 nm (±77.97) 0.5% particle size and 110 nm (±32.19) with the clear observation of rougher spindle-like pulverized Moringa oleifera particle beads of 680 nm (±131.77) at 8% of alginate/Moringa oleifera fiber (AMF) Orisawayi et al (2024).
The rheological results showed characteristic shear-thinning or pseudoplastic phenomenon, with a decrease in viscosity as the shear rate increased, indicating a polymer solution suitable for an ideal electrospinning process. Further, characterization from the result obtained from Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) reveals that amine and amide functional groups are prevalent in the alginate-impregnated with Moringa nanofibers and result from thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) showed noticeable change with degradation properties, clearly indicating of successful incorporation of Moringa oleifera into the electrospun fibers Orisawayi et al (2024).
The key findings from our study indicate the developed fiber is a sustainable composite with promising and versatile applications suitable for air purification, wood care, food packaging, cosmetic products, storage devices manufacturing, textile manufacturing, and environmental remediation, including soil and water treatment for heavy metals removal.
Keywords: Alginate, pulverized Moringa oleifera, electrospinning, nanofiber, sustainable, composite fiber, water treatment.
Acknowledgments: This work was supported by the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), Nigeria, through the Petroleum Technology Development Fund award for the Postgraduate Scholarship at Ph.D. level Funding with funding number. PTDF/ED/OSS/PHD/AOO/1844/2020PHD152.
References
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Orisawayi, A. O., Koziol, K., Hao, S., Tiwari, S., & Rahatekar, S. S. (2024). Development of hybrid electrospun alginate-pulverized moringa composites. RSC Advances, 14(12), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1039/D4RA00162A