Electrospinning of polyacrylonitrile nanofibres and applications in membrane distillation technology: a review

Abstract

Water scarcity is a major concern in some parts of the world today. In some countries, seawater desalination through membrane distillation (MD) has been employed to overcome the crisis. However, there are two primary challenges hindering the effectiveness of the MD process, which are vapour flux declination and membrane wetting. Recently, electrospun fibres have been proposed as an alternative technique to develop novel membrane modules for the MD process. In this regard, polyacrylonitrile (PAN) in the form of electrospun fibres is a popular choice due to its superior characteristics such as hydrophobic surface, small fibre diameter, low thermal conductivity, and good mechanical strength. However, it is dependent on the fabrication method, which has a significant impact on the characteristics of the final products. Electrospinning is the most efficient technique for producing polymeric electrospun fibres utilising electrical charges. Although electrospinning is frequently seen as a simple process, it involves a number of complex processing parameters that must be optimised in order to produce high-quality fibre membranes. In this review, a brief overview is presented on the electrospinning of PAN electrospun fibres, as well as the range of optimum processing parameters. This review also focuses on the properties of PAN electrospun fibres and current fabrication methods for developing membrane modules for the MD system.