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A novel magnetic FeO/BiOI hybrid nanostructure was fabricated by combining electrospinning and successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method. Hollow FeO nanofibers with internal diameter around 50 nm were produced by using electrospinning and calcinations of the as-spun fibers at 450 °C for 2 h. BiOI was deposited on the FeO nanofiber surface by SILAR method, and the BiOI quantity could be controlled by the growth cycles of SILAR. Similar synthetic procedure could also be used to prepare FeO/BiOBr and FeO/BiOCl hybrid nanostructures. The BiOI on the magnetic nanofiber surface is highly crystalline with lamellae morphology of around 16 nm in thickness from the X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy detections. The obtained FeO/BiOI hybrid nanostructures exhibit superior visible light catalytic performance toward decomposition of RhB. This new method, which can also be used to prepare other magnetic photocatalyst simply at low cost, is suitable for practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel method for fabricating highly ordered fiber micropatterns by assembly of electrospun nanofiber segments was described. Polymethylglutarimide (PMGI) fiber segments with an average length of 3 µm were prepared by combining electrospinning with subsequent sonication treatment. Afterwards, the fiber segments dispersed in water were assembled on Norland optical adhesive (NOA) templates with different microstructural sizes and shapes, allowing formation of spatially uniform nanofibrous micropatterns on flat glass substrate. Regular fiber microarrays were produced when the feature size of NOA template was larger than 30 µm for square and strip geometry. In each microdot, the fiber segments had several layer thicknesses. This new method, which can prepare fiber micropatterns for different materials and microstructures, is suitable for functional device and cell biology applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a straightforward and accessible method to fabricate high density ZnO nanowires (NWs) with tunable morphology. Our approach includes (1) electrospinning of zinc salts embedded polymer nanofibers, (2) high temperature calcination for the polymer removal and the formation of ZnO seeds, and (3) hydrothermal growth of ZnO NWs. The high resolution transmission electron emission and selected-area electron diffraction characterization results indicate that the obtained ZnO NWs have a single crystalline structure. The method could be applied to produce highly dense and organized ZnO NWs with different pattern morphologies, including aligned, uniform film and hierarchical structured ZnO NWs mostly depending on the initial electrospinning conditions. The length of the ZnO NWs could be controlled in the range of 1-8 μm by different growth time, which are able to generate the hydrophobic surface with different wetting properties. Due to the convenient preparation and large surface areas, the ZnO NWs fabricated by this method are suitable for a range of energy applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstracts We reported a facile strategy for fabricating cross-linked poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) nanofibers with internal nanopore structure. PVA nanofibers encapsulated with Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles were produced by electrospinning, in which nanopores were generated by removal of Fe 3 O 4 particle template and cross-linking of PVA simultaneously. The cross-linked PVA nanofibers had enhanced thermal stability compared with that of the as-spun pure ones. It is shown that the pores were uniformly distributed all over the fibers, with an average size of 12 nm. This new method, which can be used to prepare nanoporous PVA nanofibers simply at low cost, is suitable for practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract CoFe 2 O 4 /BiOI fiber photocatalysts, prepared by decorating BiOI nanoplates on electrospun CoFe 2 O 4 fiber surface through both SILAR and solvothermal methods exhibit high magnetic response and visible light photocatalytical activity toward degradation of RhB. Abstract A facile methodology for fabricating novel magnetic fibrous visible light photocatalysts CoFe 2 O 4 /BiOI (CFO/BiOI) is presented. The fabrication procedure involves production of electrospun CoFe 2 O 4 nanofibers and subsequent controllable decoration of BiOI nanoplates by both the successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) and solvothermal methods on CoFe 2 O 4 nanofiber surface. The BiOI nanoplates on the fiber surface obtained by two methods are highly crystallized with lamellae morphology. The resulting CFO/BiOI fibers exhibit strongly magnetic response to external magnetic field and can be quickly collected. All the CFO/BiOI fiber samples exhibit excellent visible light photocatalytic performance towards degrading RhB regardless of the preparation methods, in which h+ and O2− play the major roles examined by the trapping experiment. Above 80% RhB dyes can be degraded within 2 h after 3 cycles under visible light irradiation, suggesting the good reusability of the photocatalysts. This work demonstrates that the CFO/BiOI is characteristic with high visible light photocatalysis performance and magnetic response, hence is promising for photocatalysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal ion doping is an efficient method to achieve high photocatalytic performance of semiconductors. However, the current synthetic methods by using inorganic salts as doped sources in the precursor reaction system might suffer from ion waste and second pollution. Herein, we developed a novel method by employing electrospun nanofibers as ion reservoir to release metal ions for the synthesis of ion-doped semiconductors with high photocatalytic activity. As demonstrated, Co/Fe co-doped BiOCl photocatalyst (Co/Fe-BOC) was facilely prepared in the presence of CoFe 2 O 4 nanofibers as Co and Fe ion reservoir via a simple solvothermal method. Compared with BiOCl, the resulted Co/Fe-BOC shows increased specific surface area, visible light response as well as separation and transportation efficiencies of photogenerated carriers. Thus, the Co/Fe-BOC exhibits significantly enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity to degrade 99.4% rhodamine B (RhB) within 4 min. This new doping approach not only avoids the ion waste and pollution during the reaction process but also facilitates the separation of the photocatalyst. Moreover, the CoFe 2 O 4 nanofibers could be repeatedly used as ion reservoir to prepare high-performance Co/Fe-BOC. This nanofiber-based ion doping approach provides a novel, universal and promising insight to obtain doped semiconductors with high photocatalytic activity. [Display omitted] • CoFe 2 O 4 nanofibers were used as ion reservoir for the first time to prepare ion doped semiconductor photocatalyst. • The Co/Fe-BOC displays significantly improved visible light photocatalytic activity to degrade rhodamine B. • The CoFe 2 O 4 nanofibers could be repeatedly used as ion reservoir to prepare high-performance Co/Fe-BOC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel fibrous BiVO 4 /Bi 2 S 3 /MoS 2 heterojunction is facilely constructed by simple electrospinning and hydrothermal processes. Bi 2 S 3 was formed concurrently along with the hydrothermal synthesis of MoS 2 on to the porous structure of BiVO 4 fibers. The BiVO 4 /Bi 2 S 3 /MoS 2 (BBM) heterojunction is organized with MoS 2 nanosheets of several layers in thickness encapsulating both on the Bi 2 S 3 nanorod around 40 ​nm in diameter and fibrous BiVO 4 template. The BiVO 4 /Bi 2 S 3 /MoS 2 heterojunction shows significant enhancement of visible light absorption in the region of 500–800 ​nm and photocurrent of 3 times higher than that of pure BiVO 4. By adjusting the precursor concentration of MoS 2 , the optimized BBM-2 sample presents 4.9 and 9.5 times higher of the photodegradation efficiency and apparent reaction rate constant respectively, than that of pure BiVO 4 fibers after 120 ​min under visible light irradiation. The present work will provide a new strategy to the design of Bi-contained nanofibrous heterojunctions with high photocatalytic activity for the applications in energy storage and conversion. [Display omitted] • BiVO 4 /Bi 2 S 3 /MoS 2 ​heterojunctions are prepared by one-step hydrothermal growth of MoS 2 ​on BiVO 4 ​nanofibers. • BiVO 4 /Bi 2 S 3 /MoS 2 ​fibers show significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity towards decomposing RhB. • The synthetic method is simple and efficient for preparing various Bi-contained composite photocatalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]