Fabrication and characterization of NiTiO₃ nanofibers by sol-gel assisted electrospinning

Continuous NiTiO₃ nanofibers have been successfully synthesized by a sol-gel assisted electrospinning method followed by calcination at 600 C in air. These nanofibers were characterized for the morphological, structural and optical properties by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectrum (EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) and UV-visible (UV-vis) diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). SEM results reveal that the obtained NiTiO ₃ nanofibers are 175 nm in diameter and several micrometers in length after annealing at 600 C. The XRD analysis shows that the nanofibers possess highly crystalline structure with no impurity phase. In contrast, the NiTiO ₃ nanoparticles synthesized at the identical conditions by a sol-gel route have impurities including TiO₂ and NiO. Moreover, the electrospun NiTiO₃ nanofibers are endowed with an obvious optical absorbance in the visible range, demonstrating they have visible light photoresponse.