Immobilization of ZnO/polyaniline heterojunction on electrospun polyacrylonitrile nanofibers and enhanced photocatalytic activity

Polyaniline (PANI) particles were immobilized on electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers (NFs) to form PAN@PANI NFs via in-situ polymerization at room temperature. After that, ZnO was deposited on the surface of PAN@PANI NFs by atomic layer deposition to form PAN@PANI@ZnO NFs. This novel ternary composite photocatalyst (PAN@PANI@ZnO NFs) displayed an enhanced photocatalytic activity for decomposing methylene blue under UV light, which was attributed to the improved charge separation of photogenerated electrons by ZnO/PANI heterojunction in photocatalytic reaction.306