Journal of Materials Science and Engineering 5 (2011) 277-280

Effect of Concentration on Polyacrylonitrile (PAN)

Nanofibers

Ümran Özkoç, Halil İbrahim İçoğlu and Ali Kireçci

Textile Engineering Department, Gaziantep University,27310, Gaziantep, Turkey

Received: July 17, 2010 / Accepted: August 05, 2010 / Published: March 10, 2011.

Abstract: The study investigates the effect of solution concentration on the morphology of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers. PAN
electrospun nanofibers are produced from PAN/DMF solutions at six different concentrations (6%-16%). The morphology of the
nanofibers is analyzed by scanning electron microscope. The experimental results show that the fiber diameter increases and the bead
formation decreases as the concentration increases. On the other hand, the nanofiber diameter becomes finer but less uniform as the
concentration decreases.

Key words: Electrospinning, nanofiber, polyacrylonitrile (PAN), concentration.

1. Introduction
Electrospinning is a straightforward method that
relies on electrostatic forces to produce fibers with
submicron diameter from polymer solutions or melts.
In a typical process, an electrical potential is applied
between a droplet of polymer solution, or melt, held
through a syringe needle and a grounded target.
Electrostatic charging of the droplet results in the
formation of the well-known Taylor cone. When the
electric forces overcome the surface tension of the
droplet from the apex of the cone, a charged fluid jet is
Fig. 1 The electrospinning system.
ejected. The jet exhibits bending instabilities due to
repulsive forces between the surface charges, which is (1) the intrinsic properties of the solution such as the
carried with the jet, and follows a looping and spiraling type of polymer and solvent, polymer molecular weight,
path. The electrical forces elongate the jet thousands of viscosity (or concentration), elasticity, conductivity,
times and the jet becomes very thin. Ultimately, the and surface tension;
solvent evaporates, or the melt solidifies and very long (2) the operational conditions such as the applied
nanofibers are collected on the grounded target [1-6]. voltage, the distance between spinneret and collector
The morphology and diameter of electrospun (tip-target distance), and the feeding rate of the
nanofibers are dependent on a number of processing polymer solution.
parameters that include: In addition to these variables, the humidity and
temperature of the surroundings may also play an
Corresponding author: Ümran Özkoç, textile engineering,
research fields: nanotechnology and echnical textiles. E-mail: important role in determining the morphology and
ozkoc@gantep.edu.tr.
278 Effect of Concentration on Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) Nanofibers

diameter of electrospun nanofibres. For instance, the
polymer solution must have a concentration high
enough to cause polymer entanglements yet not so high
that the viscosity prevents polymer motion induced by
the electric field. The solution must also have a surface
tension low enough, a charge density high enough, and
a viscosity high enough to prevent the jet from
collapsing into droplets before the solvent has
evaporated [7-11]. During the last 10 years extensive
research has been conducted on various aspects of
electrospinning.
Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) is the most extensively used
polymer in electrospinning because of its excellent
properties [12-15]. Effect of concentration is still
investigated. Generally as the concentration increases,
the fiber diameter increases and the bead formation
decreases [1, 7, 12]. The effect of concentration on
PAN nanofibers is investigated.
2. Experiment
2.1 Materials and Preparation of Spinning Solutions
PAN (polyacrylonitrile) polymer [Mw 150,000] was
gently supplied from AKSA Acrylic. The solvent used
was dimethylformamide (DMF). To conduct the
experiment a solution was prepared by dissolving PAN
polymer in DMF. The solution (6%-16% of PAN) was
arranged by stirring magnetically for one hour at a
temperature of 90 °C.
fibers were collected on the aluminum foil.
2.3 Characterization
The morphological appearance of the PAN
nanofiber mats and that of the individual fibers were
investigated by a JEOL JSM-6390LV scanning
electron microscope (SEM), operating at an
acceleration voltage of 10 kV. The diameters of
nanofibers were measured using Image-ProPlus 6.0. 30
measurements were performed and average diameter of
the nanofibers was calculated.
3. Results and Discussion
Experimental results demonstrate that the average
nanofiber diameter increases when the concentrations
increase as given in Fig. 2. The lowest diameter is 216
nm obtained at 6% concentration, and the highest
diameter is 360 nm obtained at 16% concentration.
Fig. 3 shows nanofiber morphologies at different
solution concentrations. Figs. 3a and 3b illustrate that
the diameters of nanofibers are very fine (216 nm and
223 nm, respectively), however the bead formations
were obvious at 6% and 8% solution concentrations.
For the concentrations higher than 8%, the bead
formation decreases significantly. The variation
between the fiber diameters decreases also when the
concentration increases.

2.2 Electrospinning

Electrospinning of the PAN solution was carried out

by first loading the solution in a 50-mL plastic syringe.
The high voltage power supply used in the experiment
can provide voltages between 0 to 50 kV. The tests
were done at 35 kV and 0.7 mm jet diameters. The
other parameters such as flow rate, the distance
between capillary and the collector were selected as 0.5
mL/h and 100 mm respectively. The environmental
conditions were kept constant during the experiments
Fig. 2 The relationship between concentration and fiber
(temperature: 25 oC and relative humidity: 40%). The
diameter (distance: 10 cm and voltage: 35 kV).
 Effect of Concentration on Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) Nanofibers 279

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

(e) (f)
Fig. 3 Effect of concentration on nanofiber diameter distribution from PAN/DMF solution (tip-target distance: 10 cm).
Voltage: 35 kV concentration: (a) 6%, (b) 8%, (c) 10%, (d) 12%, (e) 14%, (f) 16%.

as 10% for PAN nanofibers. Since the fiber diameter

4. Conclusions
For PAN polymer, it was observed that as the
concentration increases the fiber diameter increases
and the bead formation decreases correspondingly.
Generally, a mixture of droplets and nanofiber was
observed at low concentration values. The minimum
concentration limit for bead formation was determined
was inversely proportional with concentration, the
optimal values of PAN concentration should be
selected between 10-12%.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by University of Gaziantep
BAPYB under Grant No.MF.08.04.
280 Effect of Concentration on Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) Nanofibers
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