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Electrospinning technology is regarded as a simple, versatile, and cost-efficient approach in fabricating one-dimensional (1D) nanomaterials in a large scale. The prepared 1D fiberous materials by electrospinning technology possess the merits of large specific surface area, tunable chemical composition, morphology, fiber diameter and high porosity, causing them to be extensively applied in the field of catalysis. In this review, we firstly have a brief introduction to the working principle of electrospinning technology and the influence factors to the electrospun materials. Then, we highlight the investigations of various 1D electrospun fiberous catalytic materials in the applications of photocatalysis, thermocatalysis, electrocatalysis, and the relations between catalytic properties with composition, unique 1D structure and morphology as well as related catalytic mechanisms are summarized and discussed. Finally, a conclusion is presented and future work is prospected.

A multi-dimensional (1D/2D/3D) carbon/g-C3N4 composite photocatalyst (CCN) was successfully prepared by a facile method with carbon from cheap absorbent cotton wool. The activities and stabilities of CCN were evaluated by photo-degrading Rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light irradiation. The effect of carbon content in composite on the catalytic activities was investigated. The results show that a good interfacial contact can be observed between g-C3N4 and carbon materials in CCN. It reveals an enhanced photocatalytic activity in photocatalytic decomposition of RhB compared with g-C3N4. The carbon content has obvious effect on the performance of CCN, and the optimal carbon content in CCN is 1 wt% (CCN1.0). The first-order rate constant (k) of CCN1.0 is approximately 5.5 and 3.4 times those of g-C3N4 and AC1.0/g-C3N4. The CCN1.0 catalyst also shows the excellent photocatalytic stability in the recycling experiments. The enhanced catalytic performance of CCN is mainly due to an increase in electron-hole pair separation efficiency and visible light adsorption after coupling carbon. The hole and •O2– radicals are the main active species, and •O2– plays a more important role than h+. The photocatalytic mechanism over CCN1.0 was proposed. This work will provide a new insight to prepare highly-efficient g-C3N4-based photocatalysts.

A flexible Pt/TiO2/γ-Al2O3 nanfiber paper (PTA) was successfully prepared by an electrospinning-coating-NaBH4 reduction method. The catalytic performance for formaldehyde (HCHO) oxidation over PTA with different Pt contents was investigated at room temperature. The results show that PTA exhibits higher catalytic activity and stability than Pt/γ-Al2O3. The TiO2 coating can promote the transformation of intermediate species and the desorption of CO2. The PTA1 with 1 wt% Pt shows the best catalytic activity and good stability. In the view of activity and cost, 0.5 wt% Pt is the optimal Pt content. The TiO2 coating not only plays an important role in improving the activity and stability of PTA, but also acts as a protective shell of γ-Al2O3 fiber, which greatly reduces the risk of alkali etching during preparation and maintains the good flexibility of PTA. The dioxymethylene (DOM), formate/carbonate species, CO are the intermediate species in HCHO oxidation over PTA. In addition, PTA exhibits good filtration performance for fine particles as well as good fluid permeability. Because of the high efficiency and flexibility of PTA composite catalytic material for HCHO oxidation with good filtration performance for fine particles, it will be a promising candidate in air purification.

A multi-dimensional (1D/2D/3D) carbon/g-C