Fabrication of wrinkled Nb-doped TiO2 nanofibres via electrospinning

Nb-doped TiO2 (NTO) nanofibres (NFs), ranging from cylindrical NFs to wrinkled NFs, were synthesised using an electrospinning method. Mechanisms leading to the formation of structures with different properties were demonstrated. In order to synthesise wrinkled NTO NFs, the mole ratios of the Nb precursor to the Ti precursor were controlled to be 0, 0.09, 0.23, 0.38, and 0.59. The NTO NFs prepared from the mole ratio of 0.59 had an excellent wrinkled structure with a high specific surface area and phase transformation from an anatase structure to a rutile structure.

► Nb-doped TiO2 (NTO) NFs ranging from cylindrical NFs to wrinkled NFs.
► Mechanisms leading to the formation of structures with different properties.
► Wrinkled morphologies having high specific surface areas were formed.