PROCESS OF FABRICATION OF SUBMICRON ALIGNED HYDROPHOBIC AND OLEOPHILIC FIBRE FROM POLYSTYRENE WASTE WITH CONTROLLABLE GEOMETRY USING-CITRUS PEEL EXTRACT AS SOLVENT

Abstract

The present invention discloses a simple mechanical method of fabrication of sub-micron aligned free standing hydrophobic and oleophilic fibers of polystyrene waste using extracts obtained from the peel of any citrus fruit such as orange, lemon, sweet lime, kinnow etc. as solvent. Fibers are aligned and useful in making different geometries. Process of making film using this process is facile and fast and film obtained is free standing film. Process set-up have minimum requirement and is inexpensive. This method is simple and flexible with respect to set-up and process. This process has the potential of being industrialized. Therefore, this method can be beneficial in dealing with both the orange peel and polystyrene waste.

Claims

1. A simple and cost-effective method of mechanical fabrication of micron, sub-micron or nanometer dimension, aligned free-standing, hydrophobic and oleophilic polystyrene waste based fibers using extracts from citrus peel as solvent without any chemical substance comprising the steps of: i. Pressing the citrus peel and extracting the solvent on a polystyrene waste surface; ii. Pressing the solvent on the polystyrene waste surface with a flat and soft surface; iii. Making a circular movement on the flat surface by the source of polystyrene waste; iv. Pulling the source of polystyrene horizontally away from the flat surface; and v. Depositing the obtained fibers on a collector; and vi. Repeating the step i to iv till the solvent gets dried.

2. The process of claim 1 wherein the solvent from the peel of any citrus fruit is extracted separately by only squeezing the citrus peel and directly collecting the solvent.

3. The process of claim 1 wherein the citrus peel can be chosen from a group comprising orange, lemon, sweet lime, kinnow and other citrus fruits available.

4. The process of claim 1 wherein the fibers obtained are aligned in one direction.

5. The process of claim 1 wherein different geometries of fibers are formed in one direction.

6. The process of claim 1 wherein the fibers obtained are free standing film of desired thickness that can withstand without support of any substrate.

7. The process of claim 1 wherein the diameter/size of the fibers obtained ranges from 0.6. microns to 2 microns.

8. Polystyrene waste derived fibers obtained by the process as in claim 1 are used to obtain coils and yarn where it finds application in textile industry.

9. Polystyrene waste derived fibers obtained by the process as in claim 1 are hydrophobic and oleophilic where it finds application as sorbent material for cleaning of oil spills in ocean, rivers, and other water bodies.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0025] The above-mentioned process along with others advantages of this present disclosure, and the manner of attaining them, will become more apparent and the present disclosure will be better understood by reference to the following description of embodiments of the present disclosure taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

[0026] FIG. 1 illustrates the process of extraction of polystyrene fibers using citrus fruit's peel to obtain the extract;

[0027] FIG. 2 illustrates steps involved in making submicron polystyrene fibers from polystyrene waste objects using citrus fruit's peel extract;

[0028] FIG. 3 shows Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images depicting submicron, aligned polystyrene fibers obtained from orange peel extract in (a) and (b); from lemon peel extract in (c) and (d);

[0029] FIG. 4 shows the photos captured by a high definition digital camera and goniometer camera wherein: figure A (a) shows the image of water and oil droplet, A(b) shows the water droplet image on recycled polystyrene fiber mats derived from orange peel extract and figure B shows the water droplet image on lemon peel extract derived recycled polystyrene fibers respectively;

[0030] FIG. 5 shows the pictures of yarn and coil drawn from the polystyrene fibers obtained using citrus peel extract; The polystyrene fiber mat was cut into ribbons and was twisted from one end as represented in FIG. 5a-c. After certain twists into ribbon, yarn was obtained (FIG. 5d). If the yarn was over twisted, it starts converting into coil (FIG. 5e). SEM images of recycled polystyrene based yarn and coil (FIGS. 5f and 5g).

[0031] FIG. 6 illustrates the knot test conducted on the obtained fibers of polystyrene by the present invention; Knotted structures (a) square, (b) overhand and (c) weaver's knot; (d) coils after opening knot and (e) weaving different diameter coils.

[0032] FIG. 7 shows the experiment conducted with an eraser and scale instead of hand in terms of scaling up the process; and

[0033] FIG. 8 shows the scaled up experimental set up in order to obtain non-fibers from polystyrene object using citrus peel extract as solvent.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0034] Reference will now be made in detail to the exemplary embodiment(s) of the invention. Before describing the detailed embodiments that are in accordance with the present disclosure, it should be observed that the embodiments reside primarily in combinations of process/method steps and the product.

[0035] In this document, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, product, method, article, device or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, product, method, article, device, or apparatus. An element proceeded by “comprise . . . a” does not, without more constraints, preclude the existence of additional identical elements in the process, product, method, article, device or apparatus that comprises the element.

[0036] Any embodiment described herein is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments. All of the embodiments described in this detailed description are illustrative, and provided to enable persons skilled in the art to make or use the disclosure and not to limit the scope of the disclosure, which is defined by the claims.

[0037] It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus it is intended that the present invention covers the modifications and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.

[0038] In the following description, for the purpose of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present process of fabrication of submicron aligned hydrophobic and oleophilic fibers of polystyrene from citrus peel extract. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the present invention can be practiced without these specific details.

[0039] FIG. 1 shows the process of extraction of the sample from the citrus fruit's peel. The embodiments described with reference to the figures are with reference to orange peel extract but it is not limited to this fruit alone. The process of extraction of the sample includes removing the peel of the orange 1(b); squeezing the peel hardly to extract the sample from the same 1(c); and collecting sample in a container 1(d).

[0040] FIG. 2 illustrates the step wise procedure of fabrication of submicron fibers directly on the substrate or product to be deposited. In another embodiment, the sample from the peel can be directly squeezed on palm to initiate the process of fabrication. 2(a) shows the requirements for the process: squeeze the orange or take few drops of extract on palm 2(b) as per this embodiment or take few drops of the solvent collected as per FIG. 1; take scale or any other source of polystyrene waste and press it on the palm where solvent was sprayed 2(c); and pull the scale horizontally away from hand or palm 2(d). FIG. 2(e) shows the drawn fibers obtained from the present invention. Take fibers towards/on the substrate or object where it is to be deposited, here it is cylindrical beaker as shown in FIG. 2(f). The fibers are placed carefully on the beaker as in 2(g) to obtain horizontal alignment of the polystyrene fibers as shown in 2(h). The above steps are repeated till solvent gets dried or till the desired thickness or geometry of the fiber is obtained. Similarly different geometries of the fibers can be obtained as shown in FIGS. 2(i) and 2(j). As mentioned, fibers have an advantage of being aligned. Geometry of the fibers prepared can be controlled since fibers are almost in one direction and can be easily directed at a particular angle.

[0041] The above simple process of obtaining submicron fibers of polystyrene waste without any further processing or any other chemical solvent can be demonstrated from other citrus fruits like lemon, sweet lime, kinnows etc. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) is used to know the morphology of the polystyrene fibers obtained from any source of polystyrene waste using the different citrus fruits as the solvent. Polystyrene fibers fabricated by using orange peel extract have diameter in submicron range whose depiction is shown in FIGS. 3(a) and 3(b). The fibers obtained by using lemon peel extract is in submicron scale and are also found to be aligned as examined through SEM as shown in FIGS. 3(c) and 3(d).

[0042] Contact angle goniometer was used to determine the wetting characteristics of these polystyrene fibers. Water contact angle for orange peel extract based fibers as shown in FIG. 4A (b) is found to be 126.4±8.6° while for lemon peel extract based fibers, water contact angle is found to be 127.1±2.8° as shown in FIG. 4b. Additionally, FIG. 4A (a) shows the oil droplet being completely absorbed on orange peel extract based recycled polystyrene fibers. This confirms the hydrophobic (water repellant) as well as oleophilic nature of these fibers obtained from the citrus fruit.

[0043] For potential use of the recycled polystyrene based fiber mat obtained using orange peel extract as solvent as textiles in the areas like healthcare, safety, these polystyrene fiber mats were twisted into yarn and coils as shown in FIG. 5. The polystyrene fiber mat (FIG. 5a) was first cut into long ribbons (FIG. 5b) and was twisted from one end as represented in FIG. 5c. After certain twists into ribbon, yarn was obtained (FIG. 5d). If the yarn was over twisted, it starts converting into coil (FIG. 5e). FIGS. 5f and 5g shows the SEM images of recycled polystyrene fibers derived yarn and coil respectively.

[0044] In processes such as winding, weaving, sewing, wrapping etc. two ends of the yarns or coils are connected by making knots. Some of the knots such as square, overhand and weaver's knot were tried using the coils produced as described above in FIG. 5. These different types of knotted structures are shown in FIG. 6. FIG. 6(a-c) shows the square, overhand and weaver's knot respectively. FIG. 6d shows the coils after opening the knot while FIG. 6 (e) shows the weaving of textile using different diameter coils.

[0045] Fibers obtained are hydrophobic as well as oleophilic with their diameter in sub-micron range. These fibers are obtained from recycled polystyrene waste using citrus peel extracts without any chemical addition or further treatment. Fibers are aligned and useful in making different geometries. Process of making film using this process is facile as well as fast and film obtained is free standing film.

[0046] Process set-up have minimum requirement and is inexpensive. This method is simple and flexible with respect to set-up and process. This process has the potential of being industrialized. Therefore, this method can be beneficial in dealing with the orange peel waste as well as recycling of polystyrene waste.

[0047] FIG. 7 illustrates the experimental set up wherein the hand on which the solvent sample is squeezed will be substituted by a smooth surfaced eraser with the source of polystyrene waste used as a plastic scale. The extract from the orange peel is squeezed on the scale taken as a source of polystyrene waste (7a); an eraser shall be taken as a flat surface to press the locally dissolved polystyrene scale in this experiment (7b); press the rubber on the scale where solvent was sprayed 7(c); and pull the rubber horizontally away from scale 7(d) to see the fibers drawn from the scale.

[0048] FIG. 8 illustrates the scaled up experimental set up wherein the whole process is mechanized in a pilot scale. The citrus peel extract is squeezed or pressed on the scale which is a source of polystyrene source which is stationary (801). The hand replaced here by a flat and soft surfaced eraser will be in a horizontal movement (802) so that it moves front and comes in contact with the scale which is stationary. The object which needs to be fabricated or the collector (803) in which the fibers are collected will also in a to and fro movement to collect the fiber obtained when the eraser comes in contact with the scale.