Electrospinning of PAN/Ag NPs nanofiber membrane with antibacterial properties

Durable antibacterial PAN/Ag NPs nanofiber membrane was prepared by electrospinning. In this study, Ag NPs were composed by applying polyvinyl pyrrolidone as a dispersant and sodium borohydride (NaBH4) as a reductant. The composite nanofiber films and silver nanoparticles were characterized and tested by transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Brunauer Emmett Teller (BET) and thermogravimetric analysis test. The specific surface area of PAN/Ag NPs (1%) and PAN/Ag NPs (3%) nanofiber membrane were about 25.00 m2/g calculated by the BET equation. It can be seen that the pore sizes of PAN, PAN/Ag NPs (1%), and PAN/Ag NPs (3%) nanofiber membranes were mainly distributed between 30 and 40 nm. The maximum removal rate of PM10, PM2.5, and PM1.0was about 94%, 89%, and 82%, respectively, indicating it has a good filtering effect. The results also demonstrated that this membrane has bacterial reduction of over 99.9% forE. coliandS. aureus, respectively. In addition, the thermal stability of the fiber membrane with Ag NPs has no clear difference when compared to pure PAN nanofiber membrane and also has better moisture conductivity, indicating it is a potential candidate applied in biopharmaceutical antiseptic protection products.