The disposition of nanoparticles in the electrpspun polymeric macrostructure can be tuned to develop superior hybrid polymer/nanomaterial adsorbents. These nanomaterials can be fully or partially encapsulated by the fibrous polymers. The thin polymer film surrounding the particles is hypothesized to influence the adsorption of pollutants by the adsorbent surfaces. By tuning nanoparticle size and hydrophobicity of the polymer (e.g., polystyrene) the dispersion state and exposure of the nanoparticle can be engineered and the diffusion of adsorbate into the pores of the adsorbent can be predicted. This would give the novel hybrid material superior tunable adsorbent characteristics that can selectively remove pollutants from water.

The fabricated material will be evaluated as filtration/pre-filtration units, pipe filters, sediment caps and it can be evaluated as suspended adsorbent scaffolding. Physical characteristics of these materials such as permeability, durability and integrity will be tested in addition to their functionalities. Eventually, these novel materials containing new generation nano adsorbents are going to be optimized for good water permeability, ease-of-operation, in-situ and ex-situ regeneration performances, minimal nanoparticle and polymer loss. Integrating this technology into a unit water treatment process is the long-term outcome of the projected work. In addition, investigating the interactions between nanoparticles, contaminants, and polymers will let us gain a mechanistic insight to the removal mechanism and fundamental knowledge will be generated while a novel technology is being generated.