Electrospun dendritic ZnO nanofibers and its photocatalysis application

A simple and efficient procedure has been developed to fabricate ZnO nanofibers with dendritic structure via electrospinning and subsequent calcination. The spinning solution is prepared by mixing polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and zinc acetate into methanol. From SEM images, it can be observed that the ZnO product has a tendency of dendritic structure. The diameter of the dendritic branch is ～137 nm. The structure and physicochemical property of the prepared nanofibers are elucidated by TGA, SEM, XRD, FTIR, and PL, respectively. The photoluminescene measurement of the ZnO samples exhibit a broad visible emission band concentrate on around 430–580 nm. Meanwhile, the intensity is related to the content of surface oxygen vacancies, which probably influence photocatalytic activity of ZnO samples. Whereafter, the photocatalytical activity of the ZnO nanofibers is evaluated by quantifying the degradation of methyl blue. The result indicates that ZnO nanofibers annealed at 650°C show an excellent photocatalytic activity. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015 , 132, 41627.