Water splitting with photocatalysts is one of the major alternative energy technologies to produce hydrogen gas directly from the photon energy. Numerous photocatalytic materials were developed and studied throughout the world; however, the majority of these studies followed the traditional methods for the production of hydrogen gas. Recently, SrTiO3 and NiOx have been considered as a new category of photocatalyst materials for splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen gases under visible light and UV light irradiation. In the present study, a co-axial electrospinning process was developed to fabricate core/sheath SrTiO3 - NiOx nanofibers. Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) was dissolved in DI water with 10:90 weight ratios, and titanium (IV) isopropoxide [C12H28O4Ti] and strontium nitrate [Sr(NO3)2] were added into the homogeneous solution to form the core layer. Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) was also dissolved in dimethylformamide (DMF) with 10:90 weight ratios, and nickel oxide [Ni2O3] nanoparticles were mixed well with the homogeneous solution to form the sheath layer. The produced layer fibers were then annealed at 600oC for 2 hrs in order to transform the organic strontium and nickel oxide in crystalline form for enhanced photocatalytic activities. The morphology of fibers was characterized by SEM, while the structure was verified by XRD analysis. Water contact angle values were determined to identify surface hydrophobicity of the nanofiber films. The UV- vis spectrophotometer was used for the band gap energy of the calcined nanofibers. The differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) was employed to identify the structures of the calcined nanofibers. Fourier transform-infrared radiation (FT-IR) spectrometer was also employed to find the bonds in functional groups presented in the nanofibers. The test studies showed that NiOx nanoparticles were successfully attached on the surface of the SrTiO3 nanofibers, which may be useful for the water splitting under visible and UV lights.
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