Development of photocatalytic TiO 2 nanofibers by electrospinning and its application to degradation of dye pollutants

Abstract

We have developed photocatalytic TiO 2 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 TiO 2 nanofibers (average 236 nm thick) with anatase crystalline phase. To increase photocatalytic activity and effective surface area, we coated photocatalytic TiO 2 particles on the TiO 2 nanofibers by using sol–gel method. The degradation rate ( k′ = 85.4 × 10 −4 min −1) of composite TiO 2 was significantly higher than that (15.7 × 10 −4 min −1) of TiO 2 nanofibers and that (14.3 × 10 −4 min −1) of TiO 2 nanoparticles by the sol–gel method. Therefore, we suggested that the composite TiO 2 of nanofibers and nanoparticles be suitable for the degradation of organic pollutants.