Fabrication of electrospun graphene-oxide embedded polyacrylonitrile composite nanofibers for air filtration

In this study, polyacrylonitrile-graphene oxide (PAN/GO) nanofiber composite nanofibers were prepared with varying GO ratios between 0.1 and 0.5 wt% by electrospinning technique. The fiber diameter of bare PAN was increased from 184 +/- 40 nm to 314.5 +/- 20.42 nm with the rise of GO ratio to 0.5 wt%. Accordingly, an improvement in the mechanical strength of bare PAN nanofibers was also observed. While the modulus of elasticity value for bare PAN nanofiber was calculated as 1.75 +/- 0.2 MPa, this value was found to be 6.55 +/- 0.13 MPa when the GO ratio was 0.5 wt%. Similarly, tensile strength of bare PAN nanofiber increased from 0.377 to 0.550 MPa and yield strength from 0.17 to 0.35 MPa at 0.5 wt% GO ratio. When water vapor transmission values of nanofibers were calculated, it was found that with the increase of GO ratio, the nanofibers became more hydrophilic and water vapor was adsorbed more on the filter surface, resulting in a decrease in water vapor transmission values down to 176.70 g/m2h. The PAN-GO nanofibers are promising candidates for the air filter materials due to their excellent mechanical properties, low cost and non-toxicity.