Preparation of Micro/Nanoporous Polyacrylonitrile Nanofibers via <i>In Situ</i> Pore-Forming Method

A novel micro/nanoporous polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofiber was prepared by electrospun blend of PAN and poly (vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) while removing PVP via in-situ pore-forming method. The morphology of porous PAN nanofibers was observed by FESEM and the results indicated that the nanofibers were porous throughout at the PAN/PVP weight ratio of 1:2.5 and leaching water temperature of 85 o C. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area of the micro/nanoporous PAN nanofibrous mat was 183.1 m 2 /g. The spectra of ATR-FTIR confirmed that PVP has been leached out by hot water mostly. The novel micro/nanoporous PAN nanofibrous mat with high specific surface area is expected to be used in the fields such as adsorption, ultrafiltration, solid carrier of catalysts, and so on.