Engineering Ceramic Fiber Nanostructures Through Polymer-Mediated Electrospinning

Abstract

Electrospinning is increasingly used as a simple and straightforward technique to fabricate one-dimensional fibers from both organic and inorganic materials. These one-dimensional fibers with controlled sizes possess some unique features such as large surface area to volume ratio, high porosity, and low density. Compared to other conventional materials, these features make them attractive for applications such as energy harvesting, energy storage, super-hydrophobic membranes, and sensors. This chapter provides an overview on the synthesis of inorganic fibers through polymer-mediated electrospinning. Some of the common techniques employed by many researchers, such as solgel combined with electrospinning, emulsion electrospinning, and electrospinning combined with solid–gas reaction, to fabricate metal oxide fibers are discussed. In addition, techniques to fabricate ceramic and metal oxide fibers having different morphologies and hierarchical structures are described. Recent applications of electrospun metal oxide fibers are finally highlighted with a focus on filtration, sensors, photocatalysis, and energy.