Photoactive polyacrylonitrile fibers coated by nano-sized titanium dioxide: Synthesis, characterization, thermal investigation

• HADI FALLAH MOAFI ^[1] ; ABDOLLAH FALLAH SHOJAIE ^[1] ; MOHAMMAD ALI ZANJANCHI ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Guilan

     University of Guilan

     Irán

     
• Localización: Journal of the Chilean Chemical Society (Boletín de la Sociedad Chilena de Química), ISSN-e 0717-6309, ISSN 0366-1644, Vol. 56, Nº. 1, 2011, págs. 610-615
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Anatase nanocrystals were successfully synthesized and deposited onto polyacrylonitrile fibers with photocatalytic self-cleaning activity using the sol-gel process at low temperature. The original and treated samples have been characterized by several techniques such as scanning electron microscopy, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry. The TiO2 nanoparticles, have been found to form a homogeneous thin film on the fiber surface. The photocatalytic activity, tested by measuring the degradation of adsorbed Eosin Yellowish dye. The photoactivity of the titanium dioxide coated fibres is much higher than that observed in case of untreated fibers. The photocatalytic self-cleaning properties of the treated fibers was fully maintained performing several cycles of photodegradation. This preparation technique can be also applied to new fabrics to create self-cleaning properties in them. The thermogravimetric study of PAN/TiO2 composite showed a slight increase of weight loss in the second step, which implied that, the dehydrogenation and oxygen uptake reactions would be promoted by the TiO2 to some extent.