Surface Modification of Polyacrylonitrile Fibers and their Application in the Preparation of Silver Nanoparticles

The chelating functional polymer, polyacryloamidoxime (PAAmF), is formed on the surface of polyacrylonitrile fibers (PANF) by the surface modification method. The characteristics of PAAmF with different modification times are monitored by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) reveals that the surface of PAAmF/PANF is rougher than that of the pristine PANF. Additionally, amidoxime chelating groups on the surface of PANF are the coordination sites for chelating Ag⁺, at which nano-sized silver nanoclusters are grown, using the reduction method. Silver nanoclusters are identified by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and SEM microscopy. SEM photographs demonstrate that the Ag nanoclusters are arranged loosely on the surface of the PANF with a wider-size distribution of 24.9 nm under reduction conditions of pH=5 and 30 °C. However, the distribution of the sizes of the Ag nanoclusters shrinks to 23.5 nm at pH=7. As the reaction temperature is increased to 60 °C, the Ag nanoclusters aggregate to ~29.8 nm as observed by SEM.