Carbon Nanofibers Containing Ag/TiO₂ Composites as a Preliminary Stage for CDI Technology

Khalil Abdelrazek Khalil, Hamoud Eltaleb, Hany S. Abdo, Salem S. Al-Deyab, H. Fouad

1Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 2Mechanical Design and Materials Department, Faculty of Energy Engineering, Aswan University, Aswan, Egypt.
Biomedical Engineering Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Helwan University, Ain Helwan, Egypt.
Department of chemistry, Petrochemical research chair, King Saud University, Riyadh, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

DOI: 10.4236/msce.2014.21006                

Abstract

Silver/titanium dioxide composite nanoparticles imbedded in polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers and converted into carbon nanofibers by stabilization and calcination was obtained and tested for capacitive deionization technology. First, the silver ions were converted to metallic silver nanoparticles, through reduction of silver nitrate with dilute solution of PAN. Second, the TiO₂ precursor (Titanium Isopropoxide) was added to the solution to form Ag/TiO₂ composites imbedded in the PAN polymer solution. Last step involves electrospinning of viscous PAN solution containing silver/TiO₂ nanoparticles, thus obtaining PAN nanofibers containing silver/TiO₂ nanoparticles. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed that the diameter of the nanofibers ranged between 50 and 300 nm. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) showed silver/TiO₂ nanoparticles dispersed on the surface of the carbon nanofibers. The obtained fiber was fully characterized by measuring and comparing the FTIR spectra and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) diagrams of PAN nanofiber with and without imbedded nanoparticles, in order to show the effect of silver/TiO₂ nanoparticles on the electrospun fiber properties.

Keywords

Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) Nanofibers; Carbon Nanofibers; Electrospinning; Silver/TiO₂ Nanoparticles

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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