Effects of hydrothermal treatment on performance of flexible ZnO/PAN nanofibers for toluene vapor removal

Abstract

Polyacrylonitrile nanofibers decorated by zinc oxide nanorods were fabricated by combination of electrospinning technique and hydrothermal treatment. Suspension of 20 nm ZnO nanopartilces in PAN solution was subjected to electrospinning technique. The composite nanofibers of ZnO and PAN in the average diameter of 317 nm were obtained. The ZnO nanopartibles on the surface of PAN nanofibers act as nucleation sites for growth of ZnO nanorods. The obtained ZnO/PAN nanofibers were subjected to hydrothermal treatment process using the autoclave containing solution of zinc acetate and hexamethylenetetramine in water. The ZnO nanorods formed on the surface of PAN nanofibers. In addition, influence of zinc acetate concentration, treatment temperature, treatment time, and zinc acetate : hexamethylenetetramine ratio were also studied. It was also found that the obtained ZnO/PAN nanofibers still possess flexibility. The ZnO/PAN nanofibers were subjected to investigate performance of VOCs removal using photocatalytic reaction. Toluene was used as delegate for VOCs. It was found that the gaseous toluene could be degraded for more than 95% within 2 hours.