Electrospun composite nanofibers of polyacrylonitrile and Ag₂CO₃ nanoparticles for visible light photocatalysis and antibacterial applications

First time, polyacrylonitrile (PAN)/Ag₂CO₃ composite nanofibers (NFs) with uniformly distributed Ag₂CO₃ nanoparticles (NPs) inside polyacrylonitrile NFs were fabricated via simple and versatile technique; electrospinning of colloidal solution of PAN and Ag₂CO₃ NPs. In this work, Ag₂CO₃ NPs were synthesized by ion-exchange method between Ag(NH₃)₂ ⁺ and NaHCO₃. The experimental result demonstrated that PAN/Ag₂CO₃ composite NFs with average diameter of approximately 430 nm can exhibit good photocatalytic activity for the photodegradation of methyl red under visible light irradiation. In addition, thus obtained composite NFs displayed enhanced antibacterial activities toward both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria due to its photogenerated electron–hole pairs indicating that this sort of material may represent a new, promising alternative with a wide range of potential application in the field of water treatment.