Abstract
Especially for the potential use as sensors, but also in all other applications in which an interaction with the environment occurs, nanofibrous materials are advantageous due to their large specific surface area. An interesting material for electrospinning is the semiconductor zinc oxide (ZnO) which is often used in photoelectric or sensory applications. Nanofibers containing ZnO can be produced, for example, by electrospinning polyvinylpyrrolidone/zinc nitrate from a dimethylformamide/ethanol solution, followed by calcination to remove the organic phase. Alternatively, the polymer/semiconductor blended nanofibers can be used which are often less brittle, but on the other hand offer less contact between ZnO and the environment. Finally, decorating a nanofiber mat with ZnO offers another possibility to prepare nanofibers with ZnO surface. Possible applications of electrospun ZnO nanofibers or nanofiber mats include gas sensing, microwave absorption, photocatalytic degradation or enhancement of supercapacitor electrodes. This short review gives an overview of the most recent electrospinning and after-treatment techniques to create pure and blended ZnO nanofibers and presents the broad variety of possible applications of this well-known semiconductor with some still surprising properties.
Highlights
Electrospinning offers the possibility to create long nanofibers with diameters ranging from some 10 to some 100 nm from diverse materials.[1]
Preparation of pure zinc oxide (ZnO) nanofibers by calcination of the electrospun nanofiber mat and in this way evaporating the polymer component is usually performed by electrospinning a Zn precursor in combination with a polymer solution
Electrospun PAN nanofiber mats were decorated with ZnO/Ag heterostructure nanoparticles using reflux, blending and hydrothermal methods, in all cases uniformly dispersing the nanoparticles on the nanofiber surfaces
Summary
Electrospinning offers the possibility to create long nanofibers with diameters ranging from some 10 to some 100 nm from diverse materials.[1]. Zinc oxide (ZnO) is of high interest as a gas sensor material,[14] for microwave absorption,[15] as supercapacitor electrode,[16] for photocatalytic degradation[17] or as an Electron injection support material in light-emitting electrochemical cells.[18] Here, we give an overview of the most recent developments in electrospinning pure and blended ZnO nanofibers and their possible applications.
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