Flexible ceramic nanofibermat electrospun from TiO2-SiO2 aqueous sol

Flexible ceramic nanofibers have been electrospun from a novel TiO2-SiO2 aqueous sol. The nanofibers obtained have an average diameter of around 150 nm and are amorphous even after heat treatment at 600 degrees C for 3 h in air. Since the material is amorphous it may be considered as electrospun glass nanofiber. Fracture in glass usually initiates from surface defects and in the absence of any preferred plane propagates perpendicular to the surface. The presence of surface defects on the heat treated nanofibers could not be detected on SEM and TEM images. It is hypothesized that the observed flexibility is due to significant reduction in surface defects. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.