TiO2/ZnO nanofibers prepared by electrospinning and their photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue compared with TiO2 nanofibers

Abstract

TiO2 nanofibers have high chemical stability and high strength and are applied to many fields such as air pollution sensors and air pollutant removal filters. ZnO nanofibers also have very high absorptivity in that air and are used as germicides and ceramic brighteners. TiO2/ZnO nanofibers, which have a composite form of TiO2 and ZnO, were fabricated and show higher photocatalytic properties than existing TiO2. The precursor, including zinc nitrate hexahydrate, polyvinyl acetate, and titanium isopropoxide, was used as a spinning solution for TiO2/ZnO nanofibers. Electrospun TiO2/ZnO nanofibers were calcined at 600 °C and analyzed by field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The average diameter of TiO2/ZnO nanofibers was controlled in the range of 189 nm to 1025 nm. XRD pattern in TiO2/ZnO nanofibers have a TiO2 anatase, ZnO, Ti2O3, and ZnTiO3 structure. TiO2/ZnO nanofibers with a diameter of 400 nm have the best photocatalytic performance in the methylene blue degradation experiments and an absorbance decrease of 96.4% was observed after ultraviolet (UV) irradiation of 12 h.