Preparation And Characterization Of Electrospun TiO₂/PAN Composite Nanofibers

TiO₂ as a photoelectric has wide potential applications in solar energy store,exploitation photoelectric translation and degradation of pollution in air and water for its advantages of wide forbidden band,large surface and strong redox property,non-toxic,and low cost.Using the photocatalytic of TiO₂ nanoparticles with the polymer as carrier,the high photochemical catalysis and the high selectivity would be suggested.TiO₂/PAN composite nanofibers were prepared from Ti(OiPr)₄/PAN composite were formed as a result of combining the sol-gel process and electrospinning technique.These nanofibers could be converted into TiO₂/PAN without changing their morphology via hydrothermal treatment and solverthermal treatment due to decomposing of tetrabutyl titanate with the condition of acidity or alkalescence.The structural properties of the composites were characterized by scanning electron microscopy(SEM),Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FT-IR),X-ray diffraction(XRD),Raman spectroscopy,the water contact angle(CA) and so on.The results showed that a possible growth mechanism for the TiO₂ particles were loaded on the nanofibers successfully.The resulting products exhibited homogeneous wall compositions,namely,when on the condition of alkalescence in hydrothermal treatment,we found many sphere particles were formed.At the same time,the hydrolyzed Ti(OiPr)₄ was packed on the nanofibers when on the condition of acidity.When by solverthermal treatment,with the falling content of Ti(OiPr)₄,more TiO₂ nanoparticles was uniformly dispersed into the nanofibers with the loading levels of 1%when on the condition of alkalescence.The diameter of TiO₂ nanoparticles was about 20-120nm.Through measuring of the water contact angle to showpiece,we found that composite nanofibers having the better non-hydrophilic.The 1% content of Ti(OiPr)₄ superhydrophobic films can be converted to the superhydrophilic state again by exposing the films to UV light.Accordingly,we try our best to apply the composite nanofibers being propitious to degradation of pollution in air and water and photocatalytic orientation.