Preparation of polyacrylonitrile – titania electrospun nanofiber and its photocatalytic dye degradation ability

In this paper, polyacrylonitrile PAN - titania TiO2 electrospun nanofiber PAN/TiO2 nanofiber was prepared via a facile electrospinning method. The characteristics of the PAN/TiO2 nanofiber were investigated using SEM and FTIR. The nanofiber showed retained nanofiber structures and high photocatalytic efficiency under UV light for the degradation of Direct Red 80 DR80 and Direct Red 23 DR23 in water. The photocatalytic dye degradation kinetics followed first-order model. The reaction rate constant k at 20 mg/L dye concentration was 0.0184 min-1 for DR 80 and 0.0328 min-1 for DR23. The dye degradation rate constant decreased by increasing initial dye concentration. The results indicated that polyacrylonitrile - titania electrospun nanofiber could be used as a photocatalyst to decolorize colored wastewater.