Fabrication and characterization of electrospun titania nanofibers

Journal Article · Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2009 · Journal of Materials Science

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-008-3201-1· OSTI ID:1051476

Chandrasekar, Ramya ^[1]; Zhang, Lifeng ^[2]; Howe, Jane Y ^[2]; Hedin, Nyle E ^[3]; Zhang, Y ^[4]

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1. South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
2. ORNL
3. Department of Chemistry, South Dakota School of Mines
4. School of Physics and Materials Science, Anhui University, Hefei, Anhui 230039, China

Titania (TiO2) nanofibers were fabricated by electrospinning three representative spin dopes made of titanium (IV) n-butoxide (TNBT) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) with the TNBT/PVP mass ratio being 1/2 in three solvent systems including N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF), isopropanol, and DMF/isopropanol (1/1 mass ratio) mixture, followed by pyrolysis at 500 C. The detailed morphological and structural properties of both the as-electrospun precursor nanofibers and the resulting final TiO2 nanofibers were characterized by SEM, TEM, and XRD. The results indicated that the precursor nanofibers and the final TiO2 nanofibers made from the spin dopes containing DMF alone or DMF/isopropanol mixture as the solvent had the common cylindrical morphology with diameters ranging from tens to hundreds of nanometers, while those made from the spin dope containing isopropanol alone as the solvent had an abnormal concave morphology with sizes/widths ranging from sub-microns to microns. Despite the morphological discrepancies, all precursor nanofibers were structurally amorphous without distinguishable phase separation, while all final TiO2 nanofibers consisted of anatase-phased TiO2 single-crystalline grains with sizes of approximately 10 nm. The electrospun TiO2 nanofiber mat is expected to significantly outperform other forms (such as powder and film) of TiO2 for the solar cell (particularly dye-sensitized solar cell) and photo-catalysis applications.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1051476
• Journal Information: Journal of Materials Science, Vol. 44, Issue 5; ISSN 0022--2461
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English