Electrospinning Using Solution of Waste Polyacrylonitrile

Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) ultrafine fiber was prepared by electrospinning of PAN solution made from waste PAN. Diameters of the electrospun fibers as well as distribution of them were characterized by scanning electron microscope. The results show that the waste polyacrylonitrile/ N,N-dimethylformamide solution can be used for electrospinning after simply treatment-filtration. Uniform ultrafine fibers with diameters between 100 nm and 250nm could be obtained. With increasing concentration of waste PAN from 9% to 10%, the morphology was changed from beaded fiber to uniform fiber structure and the fiber diameter was also increased from110nm to 184 nm gradually. A narrow distribution of fiber diameters was observed at a voltage of 22kV. However, more beaded fibers were observed for longer tip–collecting foil distance.