Preparation of Fe (III) – Amidoximated PAN Nanofibers Complexes for Degradation of Azo Dye under Visible Light Irradiation

Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers were fabricated via electrospinning technique, and the modified Fe-polyacrylonitrile nanofibers photocatalysts(Fe-AO-n-PAN) were prepared by a reaction between PAN nanofibers (AO-n-PAN) containing amidoxime group and ferric chloride. Then Fe-AO-n-PAN were used as heterogeneous catalysts in the oxidative degradation reaction of C.I. Reactive Red 195(RR195) in water. This paper investigated the influences on the degree of the conversion from nitrile group to amidoxime group (CP%); analyzed the impacts on the Fe (III) ions content (QFe-PAN) in Fe-AO-n-PAN; and studied the effects of QFe-PAN on the decoloration rate of the dye. The results indicated that the CP% value were greatly enhanced not only with concentration of NH2OH•HCl increasing, but also gradually with the prolongation of reaction time. In addition, the QFe-PAN of Fe-AO-n-PAN increases with the rise of CFe and the CP% value. Finally, Fe-AO-n-PAN have remarkable catalytic activity on the degradation of RR 195, and higher QFe-PAN could promote the catalytic performance of Fe-AO-n-PAN.