The Effect of Fiber Thickness of Styrofoam Made Using Rotary Forcespinning for Water Filter Aplications

Abstract

The increasing demand for clean water and the growing accumulation of plastic waste have driven the development of sustainable and efficient water filtration technologies. This study investigates the effect of fiber membrane thickness on the water filtration performance of styrofoam-based nanofiber membranes fabricated using the rotary forcespinning method. Waste styrofoam was dissolved in d-limonene to produce a 28% w/w polymer solution, which was subsequently spun into fibers without the application of high voltage. The resulting fibers were pressed into membranes with thickness variations of 0.35 mm, 0.75 mm, and 1.20 mm. Membrane morphology was analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), while filtration performance was evaluated through flux and filtration efficiency tests under air pressures up to 30 kPa. The results show that increasing membrane thickness leads to a decrease in water flux but an improvement in filtration efficiency. The membrane with a thickness of 0.35 mm exhibited the highest flux, comparable to the glass fiber membrane used as a control, whereas thicker membranes demonstrated average filtration efficiencies of approximately 90%. SEM observations confirmed that the pressing process increased fiber density without damaging the fiber structure. These findings indicate that styrofoam waste-derived nanofiber membranes produced via rotary forcespinning have strong potential as effective and sustainable water filtration materials, with membrane thickness playing a critical role in balancing flux and filtration efficiency.