Polyacrylonitrile fiber (PANF) has excellent mechanical strength, chemical resistance and good thermal stability, and it is easy to be modified. Physical modification can be achieved by adding additives or functional monomers into polyacrylonitrile spinning dope or heat treating PANF. Chemical surface modification of PANF includes amination, amidation, oxidation, reduction, cross-linking, hydrolysis, acid treatment and chemical grafting. Surface modification brings many special functional groups to PANF, which can be further used as carriers of organic compounds, organic ligands, enzymes and transition metals. Functionalized PANF with catalytic activity was obtained by loading the catalytic active sites. In recent years, functional PANF has been widely used as heterogeneous catalyst in the field of organic synthesis. The research achievements and progress of functional PANF catalyst in organic reactions are reviewed, including condensation reaction, coupling reaction, addition reaction, redox reaction and multi-component one-pot reaction. The synthesis and structure of fiber catalyst are introduced, the catalytic performance is discussed, and the possible catalytic mechanism is analyzed, which pave the way for the development of better functional PANF.

Key words: polyacrylonitrile fiber, carrier, modification, functionalization, catalysis, organic synthesis