Acrylonitrile/vinyl acetate copolymer nanofibers with different vinylacetate content

Abstract

In this study, free radical copolymerization of acrylonitrile (AN)–vinyl acetate (VAc) was performed for five different feed ratio of VAc (wt %) by using ammonium persulfate (APS) in the aqueous medium. The effect of VAc content on the spectrophotometric and thermal properties of AN–VAc copolymers was investigated by Fourier Transform Infrared–Attenuated Total Reflectance spectrophotometer (FTIR–ATR), differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), and thermal gravimetric analyzer (TGA). Thermal stability of homopolymer of AN is improved after being copolymerized. The electrospun P(AN‐co‐VAc) nanofibers were fabricated and the effect of VAc content on the morphologic properties of nanofibers was studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The viscosity of the solution had a significant effect on P(AN‐co‐VAc) electrospinning and the nanofiber morphology. The average diameters of P(AN‐co‐VAc) nanofibers decreased 3.4 times with increasing feed ratio of VAc wt %. The P(AN‐co‐VAc) electrospun nanofiber mats, with the feed ratio of 30 wt % VAc, can be used as a nanofiber membrane in filtration and as a carbon nanofiber precursor for energy storage applications due to high surface to volume ratio, high thermal stability, homogeneous, and thinner nanofiber distribution. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013

Characterization of polyacrylonitrile, poly(acrylonitrile‐co‐vinyl acetate), and poly(acrylonitrile‐co‐itaconic acid) based activated carbon nanofibers

“…These higher values for the copolymers in comparison with the homopolymer of AN indicated that the thermal stability of PAN was improved after it was copolymerized with VAc; this confirmed the effects of the VAc and IA functional groups in the copolymers in addition to the nitrile groups of PAN. These results were in good accordance with the literature …”

“…The stabilized nanofibers that contained VAc showed nearly the same weight loss behavior with P0S. These results were in good agreement with previous studies …”

“…These results were in good accordance with the literature. 13,45 TGA thermograms of the fibers after the oxidative stabilization process were recorded as well. Figure 6 shows the TGA thermogram for the stabilized PAN-, P(AN-co-VAc)-, and P(AN-co-IA)-based CNFs.…”

“…Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) homopolymer is expected to be the optimal choice to produce PAN fibers; however, it hinders the alignment of molecule chains during spinning, and this results in poor quality in carbon fiber. The effects of the vinyl acetate (VAc) content on the spectrophotometric and thermal properties of acrylonitrile (AN)–VAc copolymers and the morphological properties of nanofibers were investigated by Cetiner and coworkers …”

“…The effects of the vinyl acetate (VAc) content on the spectrophotometric and thermal properties of acrylonitrile (AN)-VAc copolymers and the morphological properties of nanofibers were investigated by Cetiner and coworkers. 13,14 In the heat-treatment processes that convert PAN fibers to carbon fibers, an essential process is the stabilization or oxidation step. The main purpose of this step is to crosslink PAN chains and prepare a structure that can withstand high-temperature processes.…”