Improvement in asphalt binder rutting performance and fatigue life using electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers

Recently, high aspect ratio materials like nanofibers with outstanding mechanical properties have been developed and used to improve the mechanical characteristics of construction materials. However, despite the excellent results obtained in asphalt binder modification, only a few types of polymeric nanofibers have been used for this purpose. In this sense, polyacrylonitrile has good thermal and mechanical characteristics to maintain the shape at the typical temperatures the asphalt is heated.

This study evaluates the effect of electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers on the rutting resistance and fatigue parameters of asphalt binders. For this, fibers with an average diameter of 1.3 µm were prepared and randomly dispersed into neat PG 64–22 asphalt binder. Subsequently, a dynamic shear rheometer (DSR) was used to determine G*/sin δ, J_nr, R_3.2, and N_f.

In the range studied, Jnr_3.2 showed a reduction of up to 35%, and the elastic recovery increased up to 4.5 times compared to the reference material. It was observed that the PAN nanofibers increased the fatigue resistance of asphalt binder at temperatures when the material is predominantly viscoelastic. These results show a promising new application of PAN nanofibers to improve the performance of asphalt pavements.