Effect of PVA Addition on SO ₂ Adsorption Properties of GO Fibers

Since late 20th century, the drawbacks of pollution became obvious which increases the demand for environmental friendly and ecological approaches in all disciplines. Not only using environment friendly materials and procedures, but also detecting any pollution, and potential solutions are also common area of current research. SO ₂ , one of the significant topics in waste management, is reported to cause acidic rain. To abolish SO ₂ waste, excess temperature is required. The current efforts are to develop materials that can remove SO ₂ at comparatively low temperatures. The aim of this study is to examine a potential use of graphene oxide (GO) fibers and composite polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) incorporated GO fibers in SO ₂ filters. So as to observe the effect of PVA incorporation on composite fiber properties, PVA incorporated GO fibers and neat GO fibers were prepared. GO fibers were prepared with modified Hummers method followed by wet spinning through three coagulation baths. For composite fiber formation, 10% PVA was added to coagulation bath three. So formed fiber morphologies were analyzed with SEM, AFM and BET. Electrical conductivities were calculated from electrical resistances measured with conductivity tester. The SO ₂ adsorption and desorption properties were measured in a quartz reactor. PVA addition did not have a significant effect on electrical conductivity whereas increases the SO2 adsorption capacity and reduces the surface roughness, pore size, pore volume and surface area.