We report a versatile microemulsion electrospinning method to fabricate hollow TiO2 nanofibers.
A microemulsion of titanium isopropoxide (TiP)/poly(methyl methacrylate)(PMMA) solution, hexadecyl
trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB; surfactant), and paraffin oil was used as the precursor, with an
electrospinning method. The TiO2 samples were characterized by field emission scanning electron
microscopy (FE-SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analyses. The specific
surface areas of the TiO2 fibers and hollow TiO2 fibers were 30.01 and 59.27 m2/g, respectively. The pore
volumes of the TiO2 fibers and hollow TiO2 fibers were 0.10 and 0.19 cm3/g, respectively. The average
pore size of the samples was 3.7 nm. These photocatalysts were evaluated based on the photodecomposition
of methylene blue under ultraviolet light. The photocatalytic degradation rate followed a pseudofirst-
order equation. The kinetic constants (k1) of the TiO2 fiber and hollow TiO2 fibers samples were
2.18102 and 3.47102, respectively