Photocatalytic deposition of silver nanoparticles onto organic/inorganic composite nanofibers

Abstract

In this work, silver nanoparticles were embedded in electrospun organic/inorganic composite nanofibers consisting of PAN and TiO2 through photocataly tic reduction of the silver ions in silver nitrate solutions under UV irradiation. The morphology and diameter of PAN/TiO2 composite nanofibers could be controlled by varying the initial contents of TiO2 in the spinning solution. From TEM images and UV-Vis spectra, it has been confirmed that monodisperse silver nano-particles with a diameter of ≈2 nm were deposited selectively upon the titania of the as prepared composite nanofibers. The amount of Ag nanoparticles embedded on composite nano-fibers was greatly influenced by the amount of TiO2 in composite nanofibers, reflecting the role of titania as the inorganic stabilizer and photocatalyst. © 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.