Synthesis of titanium dioxide nanorods with combination of anatase and rutile crystalline structure by electrospun polymeric nanofiber method

Titanium dioxide has attracted great interest due to their attractive properties and tremendous applications in photocatalysis, chemical sensors, and photovoltaic cells [1].TiO2 has been widely used as photocatalyst due to its chemical stability and availability in commercial. In application, TiO2 particles are preferred to be immobilized on supporting materials to prevent particles agglomeration and make it easy to recover afterwards [2]. Recently, electrospinning ofpolymer solution containing photocatalyst has been employed as alternative approach to immobilize photocatalyst onnanofiber webs with goal to increase surface area for photocatalytic activity [3]. In this paper, the TiO2 nanorods with combination anatase/rutile structure were synthesized by impregnating stabilized electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofiber templates with titanium dioxide nanoparticles and subsequent calcination