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

By coupling the self-assembly of polystyrene-block-poly(ethylene oxide)-containing titanium-tetraisopropoxide and tungsten hexaphenoxide (the precursors of TiO2 and WO3, respectively) with electrospinning technique, the hierarchically porous TiO2/WO3 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 TiO2 acts as the frames, and WO3 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 TiO2 and neat WO3. 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 TiO2, especially for visible light.