RESEARCH PAPER UV-protection properties of electrospun polyacrylonitrile nanofibrous mats embedded with MgO and Al 2 O 3 nanoparticles Saeed Dadvar • Hossein Tavanai • Mohammad Morshed Received: 24 December 2010 / Accepted: 4 July 2011 / Published online: 16 July 2011 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011 Abstract This article describes the ultraviolet (UV) protection of MgO and Al 2 O 3 nanoparticles embed- ded electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibrous mats. UV radiation is a harmful part of sunlight and prolonged exposure to it can cause serious skin damages. In this research, nanofibrous mats consist- ing of nanofibers with different diameters containing different amounts of MgO, Al 2 O 3 , MgO Plus, and Al 2 O 3 Plus nanoparticles were produced, and their UV-protection was measured. The specific surface area of MgO, MgO Plus, Al 2 O 3 , and Al 2 O 3 Plus nanoparticles was 230, 600, 275, and 550 m 2 /g, respectively. The mean diameter of electrospun PAN nanofibers embedded with metal oxide nanoparticles was in the range of 665–337 nm. The results showed that the UV-protection (shielding) capability of the mats strongly depends on fiber diameter; in fact a thin mat of nanofibers has a much stronger UV-protection in comparison to a thicker mat composed of regular fibers. UV transmission is reduced as a result of embedding MgO and Al 2 O 3 nanoparticles in the electrospun PAN nanofibrous mats. MgO Plus and Al 2 O 3 Plus show higher UV-protection than MgO and Al 2 O 3 . Keywords Electrospinning  Embedded PAN nanofibers  MgO and Al 2 O 3 nanoparticles  UV-protection  Nanotechnology for textiles Introduction Limited exposure of human body to sunlight is essential for health, as sunlight allows the body to produce vitamin D which is essential for the bone growth. However, sunlight also contains harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation, and the pigmentation in the external layers of the skin has the role of blocking it out. Inadequate pigmentation lets the UV radiation through the inner layers of the skin, causing sunburn with typical symptoms, such as reddening, swelling, burning, and itching. Depending on the wavelength, sunlight UV radiation has been divided into UV-A (315–400 nm), UV-B (280–315 nm), and UV-C (200–280 nm). Long exposure to UV-B radiation is known to cause skin damages, such as loss of elasticity, formation of wrinkles, aging, promotion of the onset of erythemal reaction, and cancers (Sarkar 2007; Zohdy et al. 2009; Jelle et al. 2007; Becheri et al. 2008). Effective protection of skin from the consequences of excessive exposure to sunlight UV radiation needs a protective system capable of absorbing or reflecting UV radiation before reaching the skin surface. S. Dadvar  H. Tavanai (&)  M. Morshed Department of Textile Engineering, Center of Excellence in Applied Nanotechnology, Isfahan University of Technology, 84156-83111 Isfahan, Iran e-mail: tavanai@cc.iut.ac.ir 123 J Nanopart Res (2011) 13:5163–5169 DOI 10.1007/s11051-011-0499-4