Acrylonitrile-Styrene co-polymer was prepared by solution polymerization and fabricated into nanofibers using the electrospinning technique. The nanofiber polarization was enhanced through its surface functionalization with carboxylic acid groups by simple chemical modification. The carboxylic groups' presence was dedicated using the FT-IR technique. SEM showed that the nanofiber attains a uniform and porous structure. The equilibrium and kinetic behaviors of basic violet 14 dye sorption onto the nanofibers were examined. Both Langmuir and Temkin models are capable of expressing the dye sorption process at equilibrium. The intraparticle diffusion and Boyd kinetic models specified that the intraparticle diffusion step was the main decolorization rate controlling the process.
Keywords: dye removals; electrospun nanofiber; equilibrium and kinetic modeling; nanofiber functionalization.