Recycling of PAN Waste into Nonwoven Materials Using Electrospinning Method

For the first time, electrospinning has been used to recycle polyacrylonitrile terpolymer (PAN) waste following the solid-phase N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide (NMMO) process from PAN solutions in DMSO into nonwoven materials. The morphology of the obtained material has been studied. The material derived from secondary raw materials was compared to the material from the original PAN using IR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy. It has been demonstrated that the chemical changes of PAN that occur during NMMO processing do not interfere with nonwoven material manufacture. Spun PAN nonwovens with different histories have similar morphology. It has been shown that the elastic modulus of ultrafine fibers depends on the history of PAN. Single monofilaments produced from initial PAN have a threefold greater elastic modulus than fibers spun from NMMO-recycled polymer. The revealed structure and properties of PAN fibers allow them to be considered as filter materials, as well as precursors of carbon nonwoven fabrics.