Preparation and Characterization of Porous TiO2 Fibers and Their Photocatalytic Activity

Abstract

TiO2 fibers were successfully prepared by combining electrospinning and calcination processes without using the conventional sol-gel method. Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and tetrabutyl titanate (TBT) were used as TiO2 precursor blended with chloroform to form a homogeneous solution for preparing PMMA/TBT composite fibers. The electrospun fibers were calcinated at 500 °C for 4 h in air atmosphere to obtain TiO2 fibers. XRD, SEM TEM and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) were used to study structures and morphology of the PMMA/TBT and TiO2 fibers. The photocatalytic property of TiO2 fibers was evaluated by photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange (MeO) under UV irradiation. The results demonstrate that mesoporous TiO2 fibers with larger specific surface area possessing pure anatase phase were successfully prepared and the average diameter of PMMA/TBT fibers decreased from 1.5 μm to 1.0 μm after calcination. The TiO2 fibers show high photocatalytic reactivity in photodegradation of MeO solutions.