Characteristic assessment of stabilized polyacrylonitrile nanowebs for the production of activated carbon nano-sorbents

Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers with average diameter of 300 nm were produced by electro-spinning. The nanofibers were stabilized at different temperatures in the range of 180–270 °C in several duration times and heating rates. Fourier transforms infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyzing techniques were employed to measure the extent of stabilization reaction. By all procedures, the ranges of temperature and duration time recommended were about 2502–70 °C and 1–2 h, respectively. Increasing the activation temperature from 800 °C to 1200 °C caused porosity and pore volume development up to 60% and 0.532 cm³/g, respectively. Pore width of all samples was calculated to be about 0.7 nm confirming micro-pore structure of the produced PAN based activated carbon nanofibers. Comparing dye adsorption for different adsorbents including chitin and granular activated carbon (GAC) showed the highest efficiency for the produced activated carbon nanofibers (ACNFs).