Electrospinning synthesis of SiO2-TiO2 hybrid nanofibers with large surface area and excellent photocatalytic activity

In this paper, one-dimensional SiO2-TiO2 nanofibers with large surface area and high anatase thermal stability were prepared by a facile and economical electrospinning technique. The phase transformation characters of the samples with different Si/Ti ratios and calcined at different temperatures were investigate in detail. The characterization results indicate that the modification of SiO2 could effectively prevent phase transformation of TiO2 from anatase to rutile. When the Si/Ti ratio increases from 0% to 5%, TiO2 crystals changed from mixed phases of anatase and rutile to pure anatase phase after heat treated at 600 °C. Meanwhile, the surface area of 600–5% is as high as 95.96 m2/g, which is nearly 12 times that of 600–0% (8.17 m2/g). Optimization of electrospun SiO2-TiO2 nanofibers shows that SiO2-TiO2 composite nanofibers with Si/Ti ratio = 2%, calcined at 600 °C, exhibited the highest MO degradation efficiency. The mole ratios of Si/Ti above and below 2% showed negative effect on MO degradation. This study serve as significant advancement platform to designing and fabricating high efficient and stable SiO2-TiO2 composite nanofibers via facile electrospinning in a “waterless” system and it is believed to make sense in other semiconductor systems which are sensitive to moisture.