Residual solvent-assisted facile deposition of honeycomb-like silver nanoflakes on the surface of electrospun PAN nanofibers

Nobel metal nanoparticles-decorated electrospun nanofibers (ENFs) have attracted great attention for different applications. In the present work, solvent-assisted mild UV treatment was introduced as a unique, efficient and versatile technique for the fabrication of honeycomb-like Ag nanoflakes-decorated electrospun PAN nanofibers. Freshly prepared electrospun PAN nanofibrous membrane from its DMF solution (without vacuum drying) was treated with AgNO3 solution under mild UV irradiation. Microscopic images showed that honeycomb-like Agnanoflakes were well decorated on ENFs. XRD showed the formation of amorphous silver materials on the surface of PAN fibers. The Ag-nanoflakes-decorated nanofibers showed promising antibacterial properties. Therefore, this facile technique with proposed mechanism can open a new platform for the fabrication of noble metal nanospecies-decorated ENFs for different applications.

Automated summary

Solvent-assisted mild UV treatment was used to fabricate honeycomb-like Ag nanoflakes-decorated electrospun PAN nanofibers. The resulting nanofibers showed promising antibacterial properties, suggesting potential applications in various fields.