Synthesis and characterization of photocatalytic and antibacterial PAN/Ag₂CO₃ composite nanofibers by ion exchange method

Highly photocatalytic and antibacterial Ag₂CO₃ nanoparticles were incorporated into PAN nanofibers by electrospinning technique followed by ion exchange reaction between silver nitrate and sodium bicarbonate at room temperature. The samples were characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence (PL), and Fourier transformed infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The as prepared sample was found to exhibit an excellent photocatalytic activity toward degradation of methylene blue (MB) in aqueous solution and antibacterial properties against Escherichia coli (E. coli) under visible light. The perfect recovery of catalyst after reaction and its unchanged efficiency for cyclic use showed that it will be an economically and environmentally friendly photocatalyst for the water purification.