Polyelectrolyte multilayer-assisted immobilization of zero-valent iron nanoparticles onto polymer nanofibers for potential environmental applications.

We report a facile approach to synthesizing and immobilizing zero-valent iron nanoparticles (ZVI NPs) onto polyelectrolyte (PE) multilayer-assembled electrospun polymer nanofibers for potential environmental applications. In this approach, negatively charged cellulose acetate (CA) nanofibers fabricated by electrospinning were assembled with multilayers of poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDADMAC) and polyacrylic acid (PAA) through electrostatic layer-by-layer assembly. The formed PAA/PDADMAC multilayers onto CA nanofibers were then used as a nanoreactor to complex Fe(II) ions through the binding with the free carboxyl groups of PAA for subsequent reductive formation of ZVI NPs. Combined scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and thermogravimetry analysis studies demonstrate that the ZVI NPs are successfully synthesized and uniformly distributed into the PE multilayers assembled onto the CA nanofibers. The produced hybrid nanofibrous mats containing ZVI NPs were found to exhibit superior capability to decolorize acid fuchsin, an organic dye in dyeing wastewater. We show that the loading capacity of ZVI NPs can be tuned by changing the number of PE layers and the cycles of binding/reduction process. Increasing the number of the binding/reduction cycles leads to a slight bigger size of the ZVI NPs, which is not beneficial for improving the reactivity of ZVI NPs. The present approach to synthesizing and immobilizing ZVI NPs onto polymer nanofibers opens a new avenue to fabricating various fiber-based composite materials with a high surface area to volume ratio for environmental, catalytic, and sensing applications.