Electrospun continuous nanofibers based on a TiO2–ZnO–graphene composite

Abstract

The present study provides the first reports on the electrospinning of TiO₂–ZnO–graphene composite nanofibers for photovoltaic and biomedical applications. These nanofibers were characterized by spectroscopic and microscopic techniques to evaluate the morphologies and phases. The fiber diameter was found to be ∼210 nm. The graphene content was maintained in the range of 0.2–0.7 weight percent. It was observed that when the graphene content was increased beyond 0.7 weight percent, the continuous fiber morphology was lost. Raman spectroscopy was used to confirm the presence of graphene. Conductivity studies showed a ∼9 times increase in conductance values for the TiO₂–ZnO–graphene system as compared to TiO₂–ZnO nanofibers. Employing these TiO₂–ZnO–graphene fiber composites as photoanodes in dye sensitized solar cells, an efficiency of 3.7% was attained. Antibacterial studies performed on two bacterial strains, namely E.coli and S. aureus, have shown that these composite fibers can be used effectively for antibacterial wound dressing applications.