Novel hollow α-Fe2O3 nanofibers via electrospinning for dye adsorption.

Qiang Gao,Qiang Gao,Chunxia Gao,Chunxia Gao,Chunxia Gao,Mingqiao Ge,Xingyue Wang,Jun Luo

doi:10.1186/s11671-015-0874-7

Abstract

Nanomaterials such as iron oxides and ferrites have been intensively investigated for water treatment and environmental remediation applications. In this work, hollow α-Fe2O3 nanofibers made of rice-like nanorods were successfully synthesized via a simple hydrothermal reaction on polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) nanofiber template followed by calcination. The crystallographic structure and the morphology of the as-prepared α-Fe2O3 nanofibers were characterized by X-ray diffraction, energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer, and scanning electron microscope. Batch adsorption experiments were conducted, and ultraviolet-visible spectra were recorded before and after the adsorption to investigate the dye adsorption performance. The results showed that hollow α-Fe2O3 fiber assembles exhibited good magnetic responsive performance, as well as efficient adsorption for methyl orange in water. This work provided a versatile strategy for further design and development of functional nanofiber-nanoparticle composites towards various applications.

Highlights

In recent decades, magnetic iron oxide has developed into a kind of nanomaterial with the property of magnetic targeting [1,2]. α-Fe2O3 has attracted considerable attention due to its widely applications, such as catalysis [3,4,5], batteries [6,7], and gas sensors [8,9]
Deposition of Fe3O4 nanoparticles on polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) nanofibers The formation of Fe3O4 on the PVA nanofibers can be monitored by the Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra and X-ray powder diffractometer (XRD) pattern
The formation of Fe3O4 was further confirmed by the characteristic peaks observed in the XRD pattern

Summary

Introduction

Magnetic iron oxide has developed into a kind of nanomaterial with the property of magnetic targeting [1,2]. α-Fe2O3 has attracted considerable attention due to its widely applications, such as catalysis [3,4,5], batteries [6,7], and gas sensors [8,9]. Magnetic iron oxide has developed into a kind of nanomaterial with the property of magnetic targeting [1,2]. Much effort has been devoted to the design and controllable synthesis of one-dimensional (1D) nanostructure α-Fe2O3 due to the novel properties of nanoscale materials. Jiang’s group and Gou’s research group have fabricated α-Fe2O3 nanofibers via electrospinning, respectively [11,12]. Electrospinning is a simple method for producing nanofibers and nonwovens for various applications [13,14,15,16]. Electrospinning is advantageous to fabricate solid nanofibers and hollow nanofibers. The main strategies adopted for hollow nanofiber synthesis via electrospinning are as follows: (1) Coaxial electrospinning involves the use of two coaxial capillaries in a spinneret containing

Methods

Results

Conclusion