Controllable fabrication of TiO(2) 1D-nano/micro structures: solid, hollow, and tube-in-tube fibers by electrospinning and the photocatalytic performance.

The solid, hollow, and tube-in-tube porous nanofiber structures of TiO(2) are synthesized successfully by a simple non-coaxial electrospinning method without using a complicated coaxial jet head, combined with adjusting the concentration of the TiO(2) precursor and the pinhole diameter of the jet head and by final calcination. The formation mechanisms of different structured TiO(2) fibers are discussed in detail. This method is facile and effective, and easy to scale up. Furthermore, it is a versatile method for constructing tube-in-tube fibers of other metal oxides such as ZrO(2) , SiO(2) , SnO(2) , and In(2) O(3) . The photocatalytic activity of tubular TiO(2) nanofibers for the degradation of 2-chlorophenol and 2,4-dichlorophenol under UV or visible-light irradiation is better than the one of commercial available TiO(2) powder, rutile, and anatase TiO(2) fibers.