Removal of a Cationic Dye by Adsorption/Photodegradation Using Electrospun PAN/O-MMT Composite Nanofibrous Membranes Coated with TiO2

Polyacrylonitrile (PAN)/organic-modified montmorillonite (O-MMT) composite nanofibrous membranes were firstly prepared by electrospinning and then coated with titanium dioxide (TiO2) using spin coating technique. The structural morphology of the nanofibrous membranes with different mass ratio of O-MMT before and after spin coating was investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The chemical property of adsorbed methylene blue (MB) was analyzed by infrared spectroscopy (IR). The adsorption and photodegradation capability of the TiO2-coated PAN/O-MMT composite nanofibrous membranes were evaluated by adsorption rate of MB and K/S values of the membranes before and after UV irradiation. The experimental results indicated that with the increase of O-MMT amount, the diameters of the nanofibers decreased and the adsorption rate of MB was evidently improved. Besides, with the increase of TiO2 film layers, the photocatalytic properties were enhanced while the adsorption process was slowed down.