Multifunctional electrospun PVDF/CS-Al/Cu-LDH hybrid nanofiber membrane with superior Hg(II) adsorption efficiency and dual anticancer-antioxidant bioactivity.

The analysis at hand discusses the creation and multifunctional testing of an electrospun nanofiber membrane completed from polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), chitosan (CS), and Al/Cu-layered double hydroxide (Al/Cu-LDH), which is meant for the simultaneous adsorption of Hg(II) ions and the testing of its biological properties. Thorough physicochemical characterization techniques such as FT-IR, XRD, BET surface area analysis, XPS, and SEM-EDS confirmed the effective incorporation of Al/Cu-LDH and CS into the PVDF matrix to arrangement a highly porous membrane with enriched hydroxyl and amino practical groups that are important in binding interactions with metal ions. Batch adsorption studies revealed an appreciable influence of adsorbent quantity, solution pH, and interaction time, with a maximum Langmuir monolayer adsorption capacity of 422.68 mg.g⁻¹ at pH 6 after 100 min and a quantity of 0.02 g. Adsorption kinetics were best fitted to the pseudo-second-order model, whereas thermodynamic study reflected that the adsorption method was spontaneous and endothermic. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) using a Box-Behnken design (BBD) was applied for the statistical optimization of adsorption parameters with a desirability value of 0.99 and a respectable fit among experimental and projected results. The uptake of Hg(II) ions occurs through surface complexation and ion exchange pathways involving -OH and -NH₂ functional groups, as further validated by XPS investigations. Besides its adsorption abilities, the membrane showed significant biological efficiency, presenting dose-dependent cytotoxicity against MCF-7 (breast cancer) besides HePG-2 (liver cancer) cell lines, along with remarkable antioxidant activity in DPPH radical scavenging tests. These results highlight its potential for dual applications in environmental cleanup and biomedical fields. Altogether, the PVDF/CS-Al/Cu-LDH nanofiber membrane comes out as a high-capacity, regenerable, and biologically active material with future prospects for advanced water purification technologies plus multifunctional therapeutic applications.