Abstract Typical electrospun polymer mats exhibit poor mechanical properties, undesirable for pressure-driven water filtration. Herein, strength enhancement of polyacrylonitrile–poly(vinyl chloride) (PAN–PVC) electrospun mats is demonstrated with a synergistic approach, using solvent vapor-induced welding of the polymer fibers at their cross points and reinforcement of the fibers by unfunctionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). Tensile strength and Young’s modulus of the as-spun PAN–PVC mats are increased by 127% and 175% respectively via welding effects, and are further enhanced to 205% and 314% increments respectively, using 1 wt% MWCNTs. The post-treated composite mats achieve over four-fold the modulus predicted by the modified Halpin–Tsai model. With a slight total reduction in pure water flux (8%), water permeability is not greatly suppressed by welding the polymer fibers or by the presence of MWCNTs in the fibers. The two strength-enhancing strategies also allow recyclability of the post-treated composite mats with high particulate (25 nm–5 μm) filtration efficiency of nearly 100% and good antifouling performance (flux recovery of >93%) throughout the 10 tested filtration cycles.

中文翻译：

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焊接电纺纤维和多壁碳纳米管增强对用于水过滤的 PAN-PVC 无纺布垫强度增强的协同作用

摘要 典型的电纺聚合物垫表现出较差的机械性能，不适合压力驱动的水过滤。在此，聚丙烯腈-聚（氯乙烯）（PAN-PVC）电纺毡的强度增强通过协同方法证明，在聚合物纤维的交叉点使用溶剂蒸汽诱导焊接，并通过未官能化的多壁纤维增强纤维。碳纳米管（MWCNT）。通过焊接效应，初纺 PAN-PVC 垫的拉伸强度和杨氏模量分别提高了 127% 和 175%，并且使用 1 wt% MWCNTs 分别进一步提高了 205% 和 314%。经后处理的复合垫达到了修改后的 Halpin-Tsai 模型预测的模量的四倍以上。纯水通量略有下降 (8%)，聚合物纤维的焊接或纤维中 MWCNT 的存在不会大大抑制透水性。这两种强度增强策略还允许后处理的复合垫具有近 100% 的高颗粒 (25 nm–5 μm) 过滤效率和良好的防污性能（通量回收率 >93%）在 10 个测试过滤循环中的可回收性.