Fabrication of uniform SnO2-SiO2-Pt composite nanofibres via co-electrospinning

We successfully fabricated uniform SnO2-SiO2-Pt composite nanofibres (NFs) by using a co-electrospinning technique, in which we set up two coaxial capillaries. Morphology control of NFs was investigated, along with their structural properties and chemical compositions. Furthermore, to systematically investigate the morphological changes in SnO2-SiO2-Pt composite NFs, the relative weight ratios of the Sn precursor to the Si precursor including the 4 wt% Pt precursor were controlled at 3:1, 1:1, and 1:3. To demonstrate the formation mechanism of the composite NFs, the precursor positions of the shell section and the core section in co-electrospinning were reversed. The resultant composite NFs were investigated by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). These results showed that in the case of the optimum weight ratio (1:1) of the Sn precursor in the shell section to the Si precursor including the 4 wt% Pt precursor in the core section, SnO2 and Pt nanoparticles were uniformly grown on SiO2 NFs, implying the successful formation of uniform SnO2-SiO2-Pt composite NFs. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.