The electrospinning of polyacrylonitrile (PAN)/hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC) was performed with glutaraldehyde as a cross linker to fabricate highly hydrophile nanofibers. The concentration of the spinning solution and the ratio of HEC/PAN were varied and adjusted to get smooth nanofibers.The nanofibers; were characterized by SEM, FT-IR and contact angle. SEM images showed that the scope of the diameters was 100-300 nm. The nanofibers became thick with the ratio of the HEC/PAN increasing. FT-IR indicated that there could be interactions between HEC and PAN. Contact angle measurement revealed that the increased ratio of HEC and the crosslinking led improvement in the hydrophilicity of PAN/HEC composite nanofibers. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.