https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-025-06034-4
Regular Article
Production of continuous carbon nanotube/geopolymer composite fibers by wet spinning for adsorption applications
1
College of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, 150001, Harbin, China
2
China Ship Scientific Research Center, 214082, Wuxi, China
3
Taihu Laboratory of Deepsea Technological Science, 214082, Wuxi, China
4
Queen Mary University of London Engineering School, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China
5
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Heilongjiang University of Science and Technology, 150001, Harbin, China
6
Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova, 35131, Padua, Italy
7
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, 16802, University Park, PA, USA
a
wangxiaodong@hrbeu.edu.cn
b
liuyingyi_hit@163.com
c
chengyingbai@hrbeu.edu.cn
Received:
18
October
2024
Accepted:
16
January
2025
Published online:
8
February
2025
Porous geopolymers are highly regarded for dye and heavy metal adsorption due to their porous structure, versatile raw material options, and excellent chemical and thermal stability. Additionally, fiber-based adsorbents offer superior adsorption performance, with enhanced flexibility, adaptability, and a high surface area. In this study, pure geopolymer and carbon nanotubes (CNTs)/geopolymer continuous composite microfibers, with a diameter of ~ 300 µm, were synthesized using a wet spinning method. Sodium alginate (SA) was utilized as a dispersant, and a solution of 5% CaCl2 in 75% ethanol served as the coagulation bath. The morphology, structure changes, specific surface area, mechanical properties and adsorption properties of these composite microfibers were thoroughly studied. The addition of CNTs enhanced both the mechanical strength and the adsorption performance of microfibers for methylene blue (MB). The tensile stress and Young’s modulus of the CNTs/geopolymer fibers reached 35.41 ± 1.09 MPa and 33.22 ± 0.99 MPa, respectively, with a CNTs content of 25 wt.%. In addition, the high MB removal rates (~ 84%) were achieved after 24 h when the initial concentration of MB was 10 mg/L. These findings suggest that the obtained CNTs/geopolymer continuous composite microfibers are promising materials for adsorption applications, particularly in flexible, braided, and complex-shaped adsorption materials.
Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-025-06034-4.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2025
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
