SIMPLE SYNTHESIS OF BLACK TiO₂ NANOFIBERS VIA CALCINATION IN INERT ATMOSPHERE

Black TiO₂ nanofibers have recently emerged as a promising material that has both advantages of black metal oxide and one-dimensional nanostructure. However, current reduction-based synthesis approaches are not compatible with practical applications because these processes require high process costs, complicated processes, and sophisticated control. Therefore, it is still necessary to develop a simple and facile method that can easily introduce atomic defects during the synthesis process. This work suggests an electrospinning process with an antioxidant and subsequent calcination process for the facile synthesis of black TiO₂ nanofibers. The synthesized black TiO₂ nanofiber has an average diameter of 50.3 nm and a rutile structure. Moreover, this nanofiber represented a noticeable black color and a bandgap of 2.67 eV, clearly demonstrating the bandgap narrowing by the introduced atomic defects.