The present study investigates the development of titanium dioxide (TiO 2 )/polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofiber membrane for the removal of nitrate from aqueous solution by photocatalysis. The TiO 2 nanoparticles were synthesized by conventional sol-gel method followed by blending them into PAN polymer. The blended solution was electrospun into nanofiber using the co-electrospinning technique. The nanoparticle, PAN nanofibers and the TiO 2 impregnated nanofibers were characterized using suitable techniques like X-ray diffraction, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy attached with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy.The average size and the diameter of the TiO 2 nanoparticles and TiO 2 /PAN nanofibers were found to be 22 ± 0.32 nm and 90 ± 15 nm respectively. TiO 2 nanoparticles and TiO 2 /PAN nanofibers showed maximum nitrate removal of 74.67 and 39% respectively at 10 mg/L nitrate concentration at pH 4. However at higher concentration (50 mg/L), the nitrate removal was found to be only 16.87%. The experimental data were fitted onto pseudo second-order kinetic model. The impregnation of TiO 2 nanoparticles into the PAN nanofibers by co-electrospinning techniques lead to higher removal of nitrate in aqueous solution at lower concentration (10 mg/L and below). However at higher concentration, the TiO 2 /PAN nanofiber membrane was inefficient to remove nitrate.
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