Characterization of TiO2–Al2O3 composite fibers formed by electrospinning a sol–gel and polymer mixture

Composite fibers of TiO2–Al2O3 were prepared by electrospinning a sol–gel and polymer mixture to form template polymeric fibers followed by calcination. The resulting fibers were characterized using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), diffuse reflectance ultraviolet–visible (UV–vis) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (XEDS), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Calcination at 973 K resulted in mixture of anatase (A) titania and gamma (γ) alumina phases. We calculated a band gap energy of 3.3 eV and found the average diameter of the resulting fibers in the 150–400 nm range. Both XEDS and XPS reveal that fibers are predominantly made of titania.