Multifunctional metal and metal oxide hybrid nanomaterials for solar light photocatalyst and antibacterial applications

Abstract

While simple mixing of the multiple nanostructural components might not necessarily satisfy the multiple functional requirements, this research work showed that such structural complexity demanded both strategic structural design and deliberate fabrication methods. As such, nanosilver-hybridized WO3 nanofibers incorporating paramagnetic CoFe2O4 nanoparticles were for the first time fabricated following three aspects of morphological control–bulk crystallinity, fiber chemical compositions, and surface modifications. Experimentally, co-precipitation, eletrospinning, and photodeposition were employed to synthesize CoFe2O4 nanoparticles, generate magnetically recoverable solar light-active photocatalyst nanofibers, and decorate them with nanosilver, respectively. The successful synthetic steps represented a facile and scalable route to multifunctional nanocatalyst against waterborne pollutants with organic and microbial constituents via WO3 photocatalytic system. The work extended to nanofiber fabrication using the NS LAB 500 Nanospider machine which allowed for the pilot-scale hybrid nanofibrous catalyst effective under natural sunlight towards elimination of a model waterborne pollutant.