Preparation of Adsorptive Polyacrylonitrile Fibers Blending with Poly (N-butyl Methacrylate)

Poly(n-butyl methacrylate)(PBMA) has been prepared by a suspension polymerization process, and blended with polyacrylonitrile (PAN) in N,N-dimethyl acetamide (DMAc). The rheological analysis results show that the PBMA/PAN blend solution is a typical shear thinning fluid regardless of the PBMA content, and suitable for preparing fibers through a wet spinning process. Moreover, it is observed that with an increased PBMA content, the tensile strength of the blended fibers first slightly increases and then decreases, while the breaking elongation increases, which shows a higher value than that of the PAN fiber. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) results show that with low content PBMA that is evenly dispersed in the PAN matrix, the heat stability of the blended fibers is remarkably enhanced. The adsorption experiment results show that the addition of PBMA contributes to enhancing the adsorptive capacity of the blended fibers, and the adsorption of the organic solvents on the PBMA/PAN(30-70) blended fibers is two or three times higher than that of the PAN fiber