H2O2-assisted preparation of superhydrophilic polyacrylonitrile fabric and its application for the separation of oil/water mixture

In this study, the Taguchi method with orthogonal array design was employed to modify polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fabric to endow the material with superhydrophilic performance. FT-IR and XPS analyses proved that after individual treatment of NaOH or H 2 O 2 , cyclization/mild-hydrolysis or cyclization/dehydrogenation occurred on the surface of PAN with slight hydrophilic improvement. Only under the synergy of NaOH@H 2 O 2 mixed system, did the obtained PAN fabric show superhydrophilicity, ascribed to the production of abundant hydrophilic groups (-CONH 2 and -COONa) on PAN fibers. Meanwhile, the modified PAN fabric presented enhanced mechanical and thermal stability, and could effectively separate various oil/water mixtures with separation efficiency beyond 99.9% and have a high oil intrusion pressure after wetted by water. The rectified performance of PAN fabric made the material a potential candidate for water purification. A superhydrophilic polyacrylonitrile non-woven fabric treated by low concentration of NaOH@H 2 O 2 mixture for efficiently separating oil/water mixtures was reported. The mechanism of hydrophilic modification was investigated in detail. • Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fabric with superhydrophilicity was developed. • Amount of NaOH for preparing hydrophilic PAN was reduced with presence of H 2 O 2 . • Mechanism behind the modification of PAN by NaOH@H 2 O 2 was proposed. • Modified PAN showed excellent separation efficiency for various oil/water mixtures.