Preparation and photocatalytic property of electrospun nano-TiO₂/poly(methylmethacrylate) nanofibres

Abstract

Nano-TiO₂/poly(methylmethacrylate) nanofibres were prepared by electrospinning with poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) and anatase nano-TiO₂ as main materials which were blended mechanically and dissolved in dimethylformamide (DMF) and ethyl ethanoate (EA) solvent. The nanofibres morphologies and physical states were investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetry analysis (TG), fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and UV–visible (UV–Vis) spectroscopy. Scanning electron microscopy observations revealed that when the content of TiO₂ was 5%, nano-TiO₂/poly(methylmethacrylate) nanofibres had the minimum average diameter which was 409 nm. Results from FTIR, XRD and TG suggested that anatase nano-TiO₂ had been successfully introduced to the PMMA matrix and TiO₂/PMMA nanofibres had good thermal stability within 300 °C. Results from UV–Vis suggested that when 10% of anatase nano-TiO₂ was added, the photocatalytic decomposition of methyl orange was 50% higher than that of pure PMMA nanofibres under sunlight irradiation for 5 h.

Keywords:

• PMMA
• TiO2
• anatase
• nanofibers
• methyl orange

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by China Scholarship Council, China and State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, China.