In this study, PAN nanocomposite (NC) fibers were prepared by the electrospining of 12% wt. PAN/DMF solution containing dispersed boehmite nanoparticles() and some properties of them was investigated. For this purpose, the boehmite were produced and characterized by FTIR and XRD methods. The FTIR spectra of boehmite showed the stretching and bending vibration of hydroxyl groups, Al-O-Al and groups. Also, the XRD pattern confirmed that crystalline particles with the size of 12.9 nm were produced. The FTIR spectra of NC fibers showed the presence of PAN and boehmite peaks without shift and the new peak formation, thereby confirming the physical mixture of polymer and boehmite. The increase in polymer solution viscosity due to increasing content from 0 to 50%wt. tended to increase nanofibers diameter from 194nm to 339.4nm, respectively. Also, FESEM images showed aggregation of on the surface of nanofibers containing 50% wt. of boehmite . Based on the results, the air permeability of samples was significantly decreased by increasing the duration of electrospinning. Also, with increasing the boehmite content from 0 to 30% wt., air permeability of nanofiber mats was increased from 12.5 to 26.3 ml/s.m 2 . The removal potential of Esherichia coli (E-coli) bacteria from water by samples was also determined. The results showed that increase of boehmite in nanofibers from 0 to 10% wt. tended to increase E-coli bacteria removal efficiency from 21 to 92.5%. Boehmite , due to their high surface area and electropositive surface, removed E-coli bacteria (a microorganism with the electronegative surface) by electrostatic attraction. There was not any significant change in bacteria removal efficiency with increasing boehmite content from 10 to 50%wt. because of boehmite aggregation in the high content of boehmite. The effect of electrospinning duration time on anti bacteria activity of samples showed that with increasing electrospinning duration time from 2 to 6 hours, the bacteria removal efficiency was increased from 21 to 65.5% and from 92.5 to 97.7% for samples containing 0 and 10% wt. boemite, respectively. The effect of electrospinning duration time on bacteria removal efficiency was not significant in samples containing 30 and 50% boehmite . Atomic absorption spectroscopy results also revealed that cadmium absorption capacity of PAN nanofiber membrane containing 50% boehmite laid on carbon active substrate was 0.23mg/m. Keywords: boehmite, nanofibers, electrospinning, bacteria, cadmium.
