Creating files and directories via Python

I'm having trouble creating a directory and then opening/creating/writing into a file in the specified directory. The reason seems unclear to me. I'm using os.mkdir() and

path=chap_name
print "Path : "+chap_path                       #For debugging purposes
if not os.path.exists(path):
    os.mkdir(path)
temp_file=open(path+'/'+img_alt+'.jpg','w')
temp_file.write(buff)
temp_file.close()
print " ... Done"

I get the error

OSError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'Some Path Name'

Path is of the form 'Folder Name with un-escaped spaces'

What am I doing wrong here?

Update: I tried running the code without creating the directory

path=chap_name
print "Path : "+chap_path                       #For debugging purposes
temp_file=open(img_alt+'.jpg','w')
temp_file.write(buff)
temp_file.close()
print " ... Done"

Still get an error. Confused further.

Update 2:The Problem seems to be the img_alt, it contains a '/' in some cases, which makes is causing the trouble.

So I need to handle the '/'. Is there anyway to escape the '/' or is deletion the only option?