{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,16]],"date-time":"2026-09-16T03:16:19Z","timestamp":1789528579003,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":47,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"23","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,11,30]],"date-time":"2023-11-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1701302400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"University of Sharjah and the Water Desalination Research Group"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Polymers"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Oil-contaminated water and industrial oily wastewater discharges have adversely affected aquatic ecosystems and human safety. Membrane separation technology offers a promising solution for effective oil\u2013water separation. Thus, a membrane with high surface area, hydrophilic\u2013oleophobic properties, and stability is a promising candidate. Electrospinning, a straightforward and efficient process, produces highly porous polymer-based membranes with a vast surface area and stability. The main objective of this study is to produce hydrophilic\u2013oleophobic polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and cellulose acetate (CA) nanofibers using core\u2013shell electrospinning. Incorporating CA into the shell of the nanofibers enhances the wettability. The core PAN polymer improves the electrospinning process and contributes to the hydrophilicity\u2013oleophobicity of the produced nanofibers. The PAN\/CA nanofibers were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and surface-wetting behavior. The resulting PAN\/cellulose nanofibers exhibited significantly improved surface-wetting properties, demonstrating super-hydrophilicity and underwater superoleophobicity, making them a promising choice for oil\u2013water separation. Various oils, including gasoline, diesel, toluene, xylene, and benzene, were employed in the preparation of oil\u2013water mixture solutions. The utilization of PAN\/CA nanofibers as a substrate proved to be highly efficient, confirming exceptional separation efficiency, remarkable stability, and prolonged durability. The current work introduces an innovative single-step fabrication method of composite nanofibers, specially designed for efficient oil\u2013water separation. This technology exhibits significant promise for deployment in challenging situations, offering excellent reusability and a remarkable separation efficiency of nearly 99.9%.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/polym15234594","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,12,1]],"date-time":"2023-12-01T04:12:56Z","timestamp":1701403976000},"page":"4594","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":26,"title":["Facile Coaxial Electrospinning Synthesis of Polyacrylonitrile\/Cellulose Acetate Nanofiber Membrane for Oil\u2013Water Separations"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2176-1314","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Maha Mohammad","family":"AL-Rajabi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Institute of Sciences and Engineering, University of Sharjah, Sharjah 27272, United Arab Emirates"},{"name":"Faculty of Chemical Engineering & Technology, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, UniMAP, Arau 02600, Perlis, Malaysia"},{"name":"Centre of Excellence for Biomass Utilization, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, UniMAP, Arau 02600, Perlis, Malaysia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5461-9237","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ismail W.","family":"Almanassra","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Institute of Sciences and Engineering, University of Sharjah, Sharjah 27272, United Arab Emirates"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9905-7407","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Abdelrahman K. A.","family":"Khalil","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Institute of Sciences and Engineering, University of Sharjah, Sharjah 27272, United Arab Emirates"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Muataz Ali","family":"Atieh","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Institute of Sciences and Engineering, University of Sharjah, Sharjah 27272, United Arab Emirates"},{"name":"Chemical and Water Desalination Engineering Program, College of Engineering, University of Sharjah, Sharjah 27272, United Arab Emirates"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tahar","family":"Laoui","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Institute of Sciences and Engineering, University of Sharjah, Sharjah 27272, United Arab Emirates"},{"name":"Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Sharjah, Sharjah 27272, United Arab Emirates"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7965-5779","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Khalil Abdelrazek","family":"Khalil","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Institute of Sciences and Engineering, University of Sharjah, Sharjah 27272, United Arab Emirates"},{"name":"Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Sharjah, Sharjah 27272, United Arab Emirates"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,11,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"121539","DOI":"10.1016\/j.memsci.2023.121539","article-title":"In-Situ Growth of Silver Nanoparticles on Sulfonated Polyarylene Ether Nitrile Nanofibers as Super-Wetting Antibacterial Oil\/Water Separation Membranes","volume":"675","author":"Li","year":"2023","journal-title":"J. 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