Preparation and characterization of R-TiO₂/PMMA nanofibers by electrospinning

Abstract

R-TiO2/PMMA nanofibers were prepared by electrospinning with poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) and rutile nano-TiO2 (R-TiO2) as main materials which were blended mechanically, and dimethylformamide (DMF) and ethyl ethanoate (EA) as component solvent. The nanofibers 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 with the increase of DMF proportion in solvent the fibers average diameter gradually decreased, with the increase of EA ratio in solvent more micropores emerged, and as the content of R-TiO2 increased, the fibers average diameter decreased initially, then followed by an increase. When the content of R-TiO2 was 5%, the minimum fibers average diameter was 436 nm. Results from FTIR, XRD and TG suggested that rutile nano-TiO2 had been successfully introduced to the PMMA matrix and R-TiO2/PMMA nanofibers had good thermal stability, and heating weightlessness was less than 2% in the 300 °C. Results from UV-Vis suggested that when 10% of rutile nano-TiO2 was added, the degradation of methyl orange was 30% higher than that of pure PMMA nanofibers under sunlight irradiation.