Vapor phase-grown TiO2 and ZnO nanoparticles inside electrospun polymer fibers and their calcination-induced organization

The spatial organization of metal oxide nanoparticles represents an important factor in the chemical utilization of resulting structures. For the production of networks that are composed of metal oxide nanoparticle chains, we dispersed vapor phase-grown TiO2 and ZnO nanoparticles homogeneously in an aqueous polyvinyl alcohol solution. After electrospinning, we analyzed the sizes and diameters of the compositionally homogeneous electrospun fibers and discussed the size distribution and morphology of the nanoparticles inside. Calcination-induced polymer removal gives rise to self-supported nanoparticle-based nanofibers. Particle coarsening by a factor of similar to 2 for -TiO2 and similar to 3 for ZnO nanoparticles is observed. [GRAPHICS] .

Automated summary

The spatial arrangement of metal oxide nanoparticles plays a crucial role in their chemical utilization. In this study, we successfully created metal oxide nanoparticle-based networks by dispersing vapor phase-grown TiO2 and ZnO nanoparticles in an aqueous polyvinyl alcohol solution. Electrospinning and subsequent calcination resulted in self-supported nanoparticle-based nanofibers, with particle coarsening observed for both TiO2 and ZnO nanoparticles.