Preparation and catalytic behavior of hollow Ag/carbon nanofibers

• Carbon-based catalyst was prepared via co-electrospinning and in situ reduction.
• Hollow silver/carbon nanofibers were prepared.
• Hollow silver/carbon nanofibers show good catalytic properties.

A novel carbon nanofiber containing silver nanoparticles (NPs) with hollow structure was fabricated via co-electrospinning and in situ reduction. The hollow structure avoided the waste of silver NPs embedded in the nanofibers while ensuring high specific surface area. The formation of silver NPs was confirmed by Field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The catalytic behavior of the nanofibers obtained to the reduction of methylene blue with NaBH4 was tracked by UV–visible spectroscopy. The results showed that carbon nanofibers containing silver NPs with hollow structure possessed significant catalytic properties.