Removal of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid from aqueous samples using electrospun polyacrylonitrile nanofiber-based supported liquid membrane transport

In this work, a simple supported liquid membrane transport strategy is applied to remove of the dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) from water samples as important agricultural pesticides. Here, the electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofiber-based sheet has been used in the SLM process as new support. The optimal SLM transport working parameters were found to be pH = 1 and NaCl solution of 2 M for feed phase, dichloromethane as solvent of liquid membrane and pH = 14 and NaCl solution of 2 M for receiving phase. The stirring speed, time and temperature of SLM and the interference effect for 2,4-D transport have been studied and optimized. We find that the thickness of nano-electrospun PAN sheet as support of the liquid membrane has important effect on decreasing the time of transport. Under the same working conditions, this nano-based SLM method shows significant enhancement for removing efficiency and rate of 2,4-D rather than PAN microfiltration flat sheet as support material.