Novel Nanofiber Photocatalysts From Cheaper Gas Jet Fiber Method

Professor Sadhan Jana and his student Dr. Monoj Ghosh fabricated a set of mesoporous titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanofibers with length of a few micrometers and controlled diameter in the range 200-300 nm, crystalline grain size 10-50 nm, and anatase crystal content ~60% via calcination at 600°C of precursor nanofibers of polyvinylpyrrolidone and titanium isopropoxide obtained from scalable Gas Jet Fiber spinning process. These TiO₂ nanofibers showed unique photocatalytic activities, e.g., up to an order of magnitude higher photocatalytic oxidation rate of gas phase ethanol at room temperature on exposure to UV-irradiation compared to commercial grade P25 TiO₂ nanoparticles. Such higher photocatalytic oxidation rate was attributed slower electron-hole recombination phenomena in TiO₂ nanofibers. The photocatalytic oxidation results produced in the laboratory of Professor Steven Chuang in Department of Polymer Science by his student Dr. Mehdi Lohrasbi showed that ethanol underwent complete oxidation into carbon dioxide and water on nanofibers without accumulation of the intermediate products acetaldehyde and formic acid. The research findings were recently reported in ChemCatChem, 8, 2525-2535 (2016).