Scalable fabrication of bimetal modified polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibrous membranes for photocatalytic degradation of dyes

Fabricating nanostructured fibrous membranes as photocatalyst would facilitate the effective treatment of dyeing effluents. However, creating such photocatalytic nanofibrous membranes has proven tremendously challenging. In this work, we report a scalable strategy to prepare copper-iron bimetal modified polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibrous membranes by electrospinning technology. The resultant PAN membranes exhibit an ultra-fine fiber diameter (600 nm), large surface area (5.34 m(2) g(-1)) and excellent photocatalytic capacity for reactive blue 19, reactive red 195 and acid orange 7 (> 99.99%) within 60 min. The successful synthesis of such intriguing materials could provide a versatile platform for further exploring nano-sized photocatalyst fibrous membranes for degradation of dyes. (C) 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.