Preparation, characterization, and mechanical properties of polyacrylonitrile (PAN)/graphene oxide (GO) nanofibers

Abstract

Mostly, water filters are designed based on the steady state conditions “Laminar flow”, while the actual case is a turbulent flow as a result of chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity, which can be lead to rapid failure thus decrease its service time. Also, the surface roughness of the synthesized filter was neglected, which has been classified as the main cause of shear failure. In this work, Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers were enhanced by graphene oxide (GO) with different fractions in order to increase its performance, in terms of mechanical behavior. At the same time, GO was employed as a surface refining of the synthesized filter in order to decrease the friction between flow and filter surface thus delays the occurrence of shear failure. In this work, PAN/GO composite nanofibers were fabricated by electrospinning process. Different volume concentration of GO (0.05, 0.5, 1, and 1.5 wt%) have been investigated. PAN/GO composite nanofibers were characterized with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). As demonstrated by the results of tensile testing, mechanical properties of PAN can be effectively enhanced with the addition of GO filler. At 1 wt% of GO filler nanofibers membranes achieved 64.4% rise of tensile strength and 71.4% improvement of Young’s modulus.