Preparation and Characterization of Hexagonal ZnO Nanoprisms Grown on the Surface of PAN Fiber Activated with Pd-Nanoparticles in a Wet Process

Abstract Hexagonal zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoprisms grow on the surface of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fiber in an electroless plating solution, where the surface of the PAN fiber was pre-activated with palladium (Pd) nanoparticles through a wet process. Pd-activation was performed by a spontaneous reduction of palladium(II) bis(acetylacetonate) on the surface of swollen PAN fiber in dimethylformamide/water solution at 90℃ for various time, and it was found that ZnO nanoprisms grow site-selectively on the Pd nanoparticles through an energy filtering transmission electron microscopy. The morphology observation of hexagonal ZnO nanoprisms grown on PAN fiber surface was carried out by a field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and an X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was used to evaluate their elemental composition. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns showed that the crystalline structure of ZnO nanoprisms was Wurtzite structure, and FE-SEM and XRD analyses showed that the length and covering of nanoprisms have become longer and wider as the electroless plating time increased. H 2 S removal performance of the ZnO nanoprisms increased with increasing electroless reaction time and the saturated H2S uptake weight was 27.2 wt% of ZnO nanoprisms/PAN fiber prepared at 80℃ for 120 min.