Fabrication of Nanocomposite PAN Nanofibers
Containing MgO and Al₂O₃ Nanoparticles¹

Saeed Dadvar, Hossein Tavanai, and Mohammad Morshed

Department of Textile Engineering, Center of Excellence in Applied Nanotechnology,
Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, 84156-83111, Iran

e-mail: tavanai@cc.iut.ac.ir

Received February 12, 2013;
Revised Manuscript Received June 14, 2013

Abstract—This paper describes the effect of embedding MgO and Al₂O₃ nanoparticles on the diameter of elec-
trospun composite polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers. Diameter of nanofibers determines the important prop-
erties of the nanofibrous mats used in a variety of developed applications such as tissue engineering scaffolds,
drug delivery, catalysis, ultra filtration, sensors, and nanoelectronics. The results showed that the type and
amount of nanoparticles dispersed in PAN solutions affect the conductivity as well as the viscosity of the elec-
trospinning solutions. Increasing the amount of MgO and Al₂O₃ leads to higher conductivity and higher viscos-
ity of the electrospinning solution and ultimately to a smaller nanofiber diameter. Moreover, the results showed
that higher conductivity of the electrospinning solution overcomes the effect of higher viscosity. Finally, no
interaction was detected between metal oxide nanoparticles and PAN macromolecules.

DOI: 10.1134/S0965545X14030043

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