Fabrication of TiO₂/WO₃ Composite Nanofibers by Electrospinning and Photocatalystic Performance of the Resultant Fabrics

Abstract

By coupling the self-assembly of polystyrene- block -poly(ethylene oxide)-containing titanium-tetraisopropoxide and tungsten hexaphenoxide (the precursors of TiO 2 and WO 3, respectively) with electrospinning technique, the hierarchically porous TiO 2 /WO 3 composite nanofibers with inner-bicontinuous and outer-shell structures have been synthesized. Scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were employed to characterize the structure of the fibers. In these nanofibers, the TiO 2 acts as the frames, and WO 3 fills the gaps. The UV–vis spectroscopy suggests that the spectral response range has been successfully extended into the visible regime. Furthermore, the resulting fabrics show enhanced performance in the photocatalytic degradation of acetaldehyde relative to neat TiO 2 and neat WO 3 . Our results indicate that electrospinning the blend solution of block copolymer and two kinds of precursor of inorganic material is an effective strategy to fabricate composite nanofibers that can improve the photocatalytic activity of TiO 2, especially for visible light.