Investigation of Electrospun Polyacrylonitrile and Cellulose Acetate Smart Nanofibers Doped with Expanded Graphite for the Structure and Photothermal Effect

Abstract

In this study, photothermal effect by doping expanded graphite (EG) to smart nanofibers produced by electrospinning method was investigated. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy was exploited for chemical characterization. Thermal analysis experiments were carried out by heating and cooling curves. Surface morphology of the produced materials was investigated through scanning electron microscope (SEM). Contact angle was determined through contact angle measurement device. The appearance of the peak of the characteristic cyano group in the structure of Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) at 2237.02 cm-1 in the nanofibers having different percentages synthesized with EG and PAN was accepted as the evidence of PAN nanofibers formation. The temperature platforms in the heating/cooling curves exhibited that the temperature of the PAN and cellulose acetate (CA) nanofibers mixed with different EG percentage have higher than pristine nanofibers. The surfaces of the EG@PAN and EG@CA nanofibers were homogeneously distributed fibrous, excessive EG heterogeneously dispersed or electrosprayed in shape. The maximum contacts angles were measured as 67.96° and 52.88° for nanofibers synthesized with EG@CA and EG@PAN, respectively. As the result, the temperature of the nanofibers mixed EG at different percentages increased resulting from having the higher thermal conductivity of EG. Main goal of the study is both investigating photothermal effect in PAN and CA electrospun nanofibers doped with EG of activating heat accumulation property of the produced smart nanofibers for heat energy production from the solar. Thus, it will be possible to develop a new promising method in the production of the smart textile products that have the storage capacity of the solar energy.