Analysis of Morphological properties of Ag3PO4 embedded Polyacrylonitrile electrospun membrane for waste-water treatment

Abstract

Electrospinning is a straightforward, inexpensive and quick method for the fabrication of nanofibres and nanofibre-based materials. In this work, electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibres embedded with silver phosphate (Ag3PO4) have been fabricated. Electrospun PAN nanofibres were surface modified with hydrazine to form amidoxime groups —C(CN2=NOH) for effective anchoring of silver ions, which is then converted to silver phosphate through chemical methods. The composite fibres that were produced in this way were evaluated using a Scanning electron microscope(SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), Ultraviolet-visible(UV-vis) and X-ray Powder Diffraction(XRD). Photocatalytic behaviour and antibacterial testing were done on the composite and analyzed. According to experimental findings, composite nanofibres made by reacting functionalized PAN nanofibres with 0.02Mconcentration solutions of silver nitrate and disodium hydrogen phosphate are found to be more effective in the photo-degradation of dyes when exposed to visible light and for antibacterial activity, PAN nanofibres fabricated by utilization of 0.05 M concentration solutions was found to be the most effective.