Production of fibers based on polyacrylonitrile with magnetite nanoparticles

Abstract

The paper presents the results of experiments on the production of composite fibers based on polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and magnetite. For this, magnetite nanoparticles were synthesized by the method of chemical condensation from iron (III) chloride solutions with a concentration of 0.32 mol/l and iron sulfate with a concentration of 0.2 mol/l by gradually adding a 25 % aqueous ammonia solution. It was shown that a simple deposition method can be used to synthesize homogeneous nanoparticles of Fe3O4 magnetite with a particle size of 8–25 nm. This is confirmed by the results of X-ray phase analysis and transmission electron microscopy. Magnetite nanoparticles were then used to obtain PAN/Fe3O4 composite fibers by adding magnetite in a 7 wt.% PAN solution in dimethylformamide. Fibers were obtained from the PAN/Fe3O4 suspension in dimethylformamide by electrospinning. Scanning electron microscopy showed that magnetite nanoparticles are uniformly distributed throughout the fiber surface, and the fiber size is 288–658 nm. The comparison of PAN fibers without the magnetite additive and PAN/Fe3O4 fibers showed that the addition of magnetite leads to a decrease in the fiber diameter at the same polymer concentrations and electrospinning conditions. XRD and elemental analysis of PAN/Fe3O4 fibers showed that magnetite particles in the fibers did not change their chemical composition and represent single-phase magnetite in a polymer matrix. The results obtained in the studies showed the possibility of obtaining composite fibers based on magnetite by the electrospinning method. Resulting composite fibers may be useful in practical scientific and engineering applications.