Development of photocatalytic TiO2 nanofibers by electrospinning and its application to degradation of dye pollutants

Abstract

We have developed photocatalytic TiO2 nanofibers for the treatment of organic pollutants by using electrospinning method. We found that the optimized electrospinning conditions (electric field and flow rate) were 0.9 kV cm-1 and 50 μL min-1. After annealing at 550 °C for 30 min, we fabricated TiO2 nanofibers (average 236 nm thick) with anatase crystalline phase. To increase photocatalytic activity and effective surface area, we coated photocatalytic TiO2 particles on the TiO2 nanofibers by using sol-gel method. The degradation rate (k′ = 85.4 × 10-4 min-1) of composite TiO2 was significantly higher than that (15.7 × 10-4 min-1) of TiO2 nanofibers and that (14.3 × 10-4 min-1) of TiO2 nanoparticles by the sol-gel method. Therefore, we suggested that the composite TiO2 of nanofibers and nanoparticles be suitable for the degradation of organic pollutants. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.