Adsorption and Visible Light Photocatalytic Degradation of Electrospun PAN@W18O49 Nanofibers

Low density and high porosity polyacrylonitrile(PAN) nanofibers prepared by electrospinning were used as brackets for photocatalyst W18O49 to prepare a kind of light weight and easy recycling water purification material for the first time. The influence of tungsten source concentration on the formation of W18O49 during a solvothermal process was systematically investigated. The prepared PAN@W18O49 nanofibers(NFs) utilize the outstanding visible light photocatalytic performance and the adsorption performance of W18O49, and at the same time give the advantages of low density and easy recyclability. The pollutant removal performance of the composite nanofibers was investigated by using five contaminants including rhodamine B(RhB), methylene blue(MB), malachite green(MG), methyl orange(MO) and chlortetracycline(CTC) as substrates. Among them, the degradation process of rhodamine B has been studied in detail. After five cycles, the degradation efficiency did not decrease significantly, showing excellent reusability of PAN@W18O49 NFs. Besides, the adsorption performance of PAN@W18O49 NFs during the photocatalytic process was also studied in detail. Compared with recently reported literature, the degradation efficiency of organic pollutants by PAN@W18O49 NFs showed better performance, and PAN@W18O49 NFs felt had a promising prospect in the field of degradation of contaminants.