Preparation of flexible PAN–C3N4–ZIF-8 photocatalytic nanofibers and visible light catalytic properties

Abstract

In this paper, one-dimensional C3N4-ZIF-8 photocatalytic nanofibers were prepared using flexible PAN nanofibers as carriers, and ZIF-8 nanoparticles were grown on the surface of electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibers doped with C3N4 nanosheets using a natural growth method in liquid phase at room temperature. The results show that the diameter of the flexible PAN-C3N4 nanofibers is about 200 nm, the size of the surface-loaded ZIF-8 rhombic polyhedral structure nanoparticles is about 300 nm, and the nanoparticles grow uniformly on the fiber surface. The results of XRD, SEM, XPS and photocatalytic performance studies showed that the uniform immobilization of C3N4-ZIF-8 was achieved. The experimentally prepared PAN–C3N4–ZIF-8 nanofibers have a high specific surface area and high visible light catalytic performance. The combination of C3N4 nanosheets and ZIF-8 nanoparticles on the fiber surface produced heterojunctions, which significantly improved the separation efficiency of photogenerated carriers. The flexible PAN–C3N4–ZIF-8 fibers exhibited an exceptional photocatalytic removal ratio for rhodamine B. The removal ratio was greater than 90.1% after 150 min of visible light irradiation. The radical trapping experiments showed that h+ was the group with the greatest effect on photocatalytic degradation.