A novel approach to directly achieve SiO 2 hollow nanofibers via mono-axis electrospinning united with fluorination technique

A facile and low-cost technique of simple mono-axis electrospinning united with fluorination technique is devised and employed to directly prepare SiO 2 hollow nanofibers for the first time. SiO 2 hollow nanofibers have regular morphology and uniform size, and the diameter and wall thickness can be adjusted by changing the sintering temperatures and tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) amounts. As the calcination temperature increases from 600 to 800 °C, the diameter of fibers decreases gradually from 470.27 ± 10.89 to 427.60 ± 12.85 nm, and the wall thickness decreases from 75.87 to 65.21 nm. With increasing TEOS amounts from 8 % to 20 %, the diameter of the fibers progressively increases from 470.27 ± 10.89 to 628.03 ± 2.51 nm and the wall thickness increases from 75.87 to 112.10 nm. Particularly, hollow nanostructure is achieved only by fluorination among halogenation, and the formation mechanism of SiO 2 hollow nanofibers is proposed and verified. The technology has the characteristics of simple preparative process, cost effectiveness and good reproducibility, and lays a certain foundation for the wide applications of SiO 2 hollow nanofibers.