Electrospinning of TiO2 nanofibers: the influence of Li and Ca doping and vacuum calcination

• Electrospinning has been used to synthesize pure, Ca-doped, and Li-doped TiO2 nanofibers.
• The nanofibers have high surface area and porosity.
• Calcination under vacuum conditions was used for producing TiO2 nanofibers.
• Ca-doping leads to an increase in the anatase content of the TiO2 nanofibers.
• Li-doping and vacuum calcination both leads to a decrease in the nanofiber diameter.

Pure, Li-doped and Ca-doped titanium dioxide nanofibers have been successfully produced by combining sol gel synthesis and electrospinning. The influence of lithium and calcium doping and calcination under vacuum on morphology, including grain size, nanofiber diameter and continuity, was observed by SEM. The phase composition was analyzed by X-ray diffraction. It was found that lithium doping increased the grain size, decreased the fiber diameter and resulted in a higher percentage of the rutile phase, while calcium doping had the opposite effects.