One‐step synthesis of silver nanoparticles exposed on the chitosan‐covered polyamide 6 electrospinning nanofibers

Abstract

AbstractA one‐step method was developed for synthesizing Ag nanoparticles exposed on the chitosan‐covered polyamide 6 (CS‐Ag@PA6) nanofibers by the in‐situ reduction of silver nitrate during the electrospinning process. The bioderived CS was employed as a stabilizer and chelating carrier of Ag0/Ag+ through its functional groups. CS was also used as a tractive agent to promote the surface migration of Ag atoms owing to its polyelectrolytic properties and immiscibility with PA6. Formic acid was used as the co‐solvent for PA6 and CS and the reducing agent for Ag+. It was verified that the Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs) with 31.7% Ag0 were embedded inside the pure PA6 nanofibers. However, the incorporation of CS achieved the AgNPs with an improved reduction efficiency (i.e., 67.5% of Ag0). In particular, the CS nanolayers were covered on the PA6 nanofiber skeleton, where the AgNPs migrated on the surface of the CS nanolayers. This surface migration of CS and AgNPS endowed a significantly enhanced catalytic activity to the reduction of 4‐nitrophenol, where the reduction rate constant (k) and turnover frequency (TOF) were an order of magnitude higher than that of the CS‐free nanofibers.