Synthesis of Aligned TiO2 Nanofibers Using Electrospinning

Abstract

In this work, aligned TiO2 nanofibers (NFs) were synthesized using an electrospinning technique with a two-piece Al collector. The effects of processing parameters, including the calcination temperature, applied voltage, and needle-to-Al-collector distance, were studied. The final phase of TiO2 was determined using the calcination temperature; calcination at 500 °C resulted in the formation of anatase phase, whereas calcination at 600 °C resulted in the formation of rutile phase. In addition, with the increase of calcination temperature, the diameter of the synthesized NFs decreased owing to the sintering and coalescence of nanograins existing in individual NFs. A specially designed collector configuration resulted in the parallel alignment of TiO2 NFs. The needle-to-collector distance and applied voltages caused the change in diameter and alignment of NFs. The diameter had an inverse relation with the needle-to-collector distance, and an optimal value of applied voltage was required to achieve TiO2 NFs with the smallest diameter. Furthermore, with the increase of applied voltage, the morphology of TiO2 NFs changed from an aligned to a disordered state.