Electrospun nanofibrous polyacrylonitrile(PAN)/Fe2O3 membrane as CO2 gas sensor

Abstract

Polyacrylonitrile (PAN)/Fe2O3 nanocomposite membranes with a thickness of 0.02 mm were electrospun by adding 0 to 5 wt% of Fe 2O3 into PAN. The surface tension, density, kinematic viscosity and dynamic viscosity of the PAN solution were determined to be 33.8±1 mN/m, 0.9794 g/ml, 1548.6 mm2/sec and 1516.7 cP, respectively. The average diameters of PAN fibers containing 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 wt% Fe2O3 particles were 300, 260, 210, 130, and 90 nm, respectively. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy results showed that the addition of Fe2O3 nanoparticles to the PAN mat reduced the absorption peak intensity at 2242 cm-1 (C≡N bond) while it caused a sharp increase in the peak intensity at 2356 cm-1 (C=O bond). Thus, it appears that an appropriate amount of Fe2O 3 nanoparticles in the PAN backbone leads to an improvement of the performance of the CO2 gas sensor, most likely due to the change of functional groups in the membrane.