The antimicrobial triclosan is widely used in personal hygiene products, textiles and plastics, but when it enters the environment via wastewater, it poses a significant threat to aquatic organisms.
The antimicrobial triclosan is widely used in personal hygiene products, textiles and plastics, but when it enters the environment via wastewater, it poses a significant threat to aquatic organisms.
A Cornell research group has developed a cyclodextrin-based fibrous membrane that in lab testing removed approximately 90% of triclosan from water. Their washable and reusable nanofiber material, fabricated via electrospinning – a process that uses an electric field to draw ultra-thin fibers from a liquid – also effectively removed other micropollutants.
“The electrospinning produces a very thin fiber, less than 1 micron in diameter (a human hair is approximately 75 microns), which gives us high surface area and excellent adsorption,” said Mahmoud Aboelkheir, doctoral student in human centered design and lead author of “Removal of Pharmaceutical Micropollutants From Aqueous Environment by Electrospun Polycyclodextrin Nanofibrous Membrane,” which published Oct. 15 in the journal Separation and Purification Technology.
The senior author is Tamer Uyar, associate professor of fiber science in human centered design in the College of Human Ecology. Co-authors are former Uyar group postdoctoral researcher Asli Celebioglu; Damian Helbling, associate professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, in Cornell Engineering; and Ivan Keresztes, director of the Cornell NMR and Chemistry Mass Spectrometry Facilities.
Read More: Cornell University
Photo Credit: Schäferle via Pixabay
