Fabrication of doped Titania (TiO2) nano-catalysts in the shape of nanofibers

Nanostructured materials have attracted incredible interest during the recent years for a large variety of applications. In heterogeneous catalysis the use of nano-sized catalytic materials is expected to significantly impact the performances of materials as consequence of their large surface-to-volume ratios [1]. The “nanomaterial” approach enables to achieve structures with incredible large exposed surface area. When nanofibers are used as nano-catalysts, the further advantage of a quite open porous structure is further achieved. In this work, nanomaterial approach was adopted to fabricate nano-catalysts for the removal of the NOx in exhausts via the NH3 Selective Catalytic Reduction method (SCR). The state-of-art system WO3-V2O5 was incorporated into TiO2 ceramic nanofibers through combination of electrospinning and sol-gel process. Catalytic functionalized nanofibers were characterized using SEM, TEM, EDX, BET, XRD, to analyze fiber diameter, morphology, composition, specific surface area, crystallization phases of TiO2 functionalized, atomic percentage of elements in fiber respectively. Catalytic activity was also measured.