Arsenic (As) contamination as a naturally occurring semi-metallic element in the drinking water is becoming a serious health problem within researches and authorities.Adsorptive nanofiber electrospun membranes have shown great promise for heavy metals removal especially in dilute solutions. The nanofibrous polyacrylonitrile (PAN) membranes incorporating Cloisite 20A (C20) as organoclay were prepared via electrospinning to As(V) removal. The effects of the C20 on morphology and As(V) removal efficiency of the prepared nanofiber membranes were investigated. The obtained results indicated that the morphology of PAN-C20 membrane is relatively uniform and its fiber diameter is mostly in the range of 100–300 nm. It was found that compared to PAN membrane, the mechanical strength and separation performance of the fabricated membranes were improved. High tensile strength of PAN-C20(1.0) can be attributed to the great interactions between the exfoliated C20 and the PAN chains. The dynamic separation results show that the PAN-C20(1.0) membrane can obtain the As(V) concentration below 10 ppb for higher filtration time in compare of PAN-C20(1.5) membrane.
