The construction of a lunar base is considered to be an important step towards deep-space exploration by humanity, and will rely on the utilisation of in situ lunar resources. In this paper, we discuss the current knowledge on the feasibility of converting lunar soil to high-performance fibres that can be used for the construction of a lunar base. This fibre would be combined with further portions of lunar soil to generate fibre-reinforced composites, which is utilized as multi-functional materials for lunar base construction. We discuss and analyse the latest findings regarding the composition of lunar soil simulants and their fibrisation properties, and techniques for fibre spinning and system integration. Finally, we suggest how the achievements made so far could be applied to the construction of a lunar base.
The frequent occurrence of crude oil leakage accidents and the massive discharge of industrial oily wastewater not only caused huge damage and pollution to the ecosystem but also wasted a lot of precious resources. Therefore, it is urgent to solve the worldwide problem of oil/water separation. As a leader in advanced fiber materials, nanofibrous materials prepared by electrospinning have the advantages of high permeability, high separation efficiency, large specific surface area, adjustable wettability, simple preparation process, and low cost, making it attracted more attention of researchers in oil/water separation. This article mainly reviews the recent progress of various electrospun nanofibrous materials for oil/water separation field. The preparation and synthesis of nanofibrous adsorbents, nanofibrous membranes, and nanofibrous aerogels in recent years based on different applications, design principles, and separation approaches are systematically summarized. Finally, this review discusses the challenges and future development directions in oil/water separation.
Electrospinning is widely accepted as a technique for the fabrication of nanofibrous three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds which mimic extracellular matrix (ECM) microenvironment for tissue engineering (TE). Unlike normal densely-packed two-dimensional (2D) nanofibrous membranes, 3D electrospun nanofiber scaffolds are dedicated to more precise spatial control, endowing the scaffolds with a sufficient porosity and 3D environment similar to the in vivo settings as well as optimizing the properties, including injectability, compressibility, and bioactivity. Moreover, the 3D morphology regulates cellular interaction and mediates growth, migration, and differentiation of cell for matrix remodeling. The variation among scaffold structures, functions and applications depends on the selection of electrospinning materials and methods as well as on the post-processing of electrospun scaffolds. This review summarizes the recent new forms for building electrospun 3D nanofiber scaffolds for TE applications. A variety of approaches aimed at the fabrication of 3D electrospun scaffolds, such as multilayering electrospinning, sacrificial agent electrospinning, wet electrospinning, ultrasound-enhanced electrospinning as well as post-processing techniques, including gas foaming, ultrasonication, short fiber assembly, 3D printing, electrospraying, and so on are discussed, along with their advantages, limitations and applications. Meanwhile, the current challenges and prospects of 3D electrospun scaffolds are rationally discussed, providing an insight into developing the vibrant fields of biomedicine.
Liquid metal (LM) is a type of metal or alloy that has a low melting point near room temperature and exhibits the properties of both liquids and metals. Such unconventional materials have been gaining increasing attention within the scientific and industrial communities. Recently, fiber-shaped LM and its composites have especially attracted diverse interest owing to their unique merits, such as excellent conductivity, intrinsic stretchability, facile phase transition, and the ability to be woven or knitted into smart fabrics. This review is dedicated to summarizing different aspects of LM-based fibers, such as their material components, fabrication and design strategies, and remarkable applications by way of their representative properties. Typical fabrication approaches, such as 3D printing of pure LM wire, coating the LM shell on the surface of the fiber, injecting a LM core into hollow fibers, and spinning of LM and polymer hybrids have been comparatively illustrated. Moreover, emerging applications that primarily utilize LM fibers have been demonstrated. Finally, future directions and opportunities in the field are discussed. This categorization of LM fibers is expected to facilitate further investigation and practice in the coming society.
TOC: Schematic illustration of liquid metal fibers and their fabrication technologies: 3D printing, coating of liquid metal on fibers, injection of liquid metal into hollow fibers, spinning of LM composites. Liquid metal fibers can be applied as stretchable electronics, smart clothing, health monitoring, electrical switches, and shape memory devices.
Flexible textile-based supercapacitors have exhibited great potential for use in e-textile systems due to their high flexibility, light weight and ease of integration into the textile materials. The capacitance and energy density of current textile-based supercapacitors, however, are insufficient to meet the high demands of wearable electronics and smart textiles. This review summarizes the recent progress of enhancement methods regarding textile-based supercapacitors, including the multidimensional nanostructure of active materials, the structural designs of textile substrates and the wearable softness. Furthermore, the remaining challenges and future prospects of constructing high-performance flexible textile-based supercapacitors for smart textiles and wearable electronics are also proposed.
Electrospun nanofibers have been extensively studied in the biomedical field, including the controlled release of drugs, bionics, cell scaffolds, hemostasis, wound healing, and tissue engineering because of their high porosity, large surface area-to-volume ratio, and programmable features. In recent years researchers have continuously broadened the structural design of electrospun nanofibers, which have evolved from one-dimensional to three-dimensional structures, in order to diversify their function. These properties enable nanofibers to structurally and functionally mimic natural extracellular matrix (ECM), thereby obtaining a favorable physiological microenvironment for both wound healing and hemostasis due to improved blood coagulation and concentration. A comprehensive review summarizing the recent research progress of the structural and functional design of electrospun nanofibers for hemostasis and wound healing, on the other hand, is lacking. This review summarizes electrospun nanofibers used for hemostasis and wound healing, with a focus on structural design and modification strategies. The wide application of electrospun nanofibers in hemostasis and wound healing is clarified using a special structural and innovative design for electrospinning. The advantages and limitations of electrospun nanofibers with various structural forms are also discussed, as are the main challenges and future development directions for the development of structurally specific electrospun nanofibers for hemostasis and wound healing.
Excellent outdoor thermal management is vital for public health and safety. However, the ever-changing and uncontrollable outdoor environmental conditions, such as irrepressible sunlight and drastic temperature fluctuations, bring majestic challenges to outdoor thermal management. Here, we report a significant advancement toward designing and fabricating a novel fiber membrane with a dual-function of radiative cooling and solar heating for an efficient daytime outdoor thermal management. Unlike the reported dual-mode thermal management materials, which are usually fabricated by compounding organic polymers and metal/inorganic non-metal materials, our fiber-based membrane is composed of only two polymers, i.e., poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropene) (PVDF-HFP) and polypyrrole (PPy). The resulting membrane presents outstanding outdoor thermoregulation capacity, with a practically attainable sun-ambient cooling temperature of ~ 4.5 °C, super-ambient heating temperature of ~ 35.8 °C, in an outdoor environment, under solar intensity (I solar) of ~ 850 W m−2. Fabrication process is simple and cost-effective, which offers the possibility of preparing large-scale products. Owing to the scalable and simple fabrication process, and the exceptional outdoor thermoregulation ability, this dual-mode fiber membrane has great potential to maintain a comfortable outdoor environment for human activities and industrial operations.
Hierarchical CuO–ZnO/SiO2 (CZS) nanofibrous membranes are designed and fabricated to remove Congo red and 4-nitrophenol two common small molecular pollutants in water. The electrospun SiO2 fibrous membrane is serves as the substrate for hydrothermal depositing CuO–ZnO nanosheets. The CZS nanofibrous membrane shows good adsorption characteristics for Congo red due to the hierarchical morphology and the adsorption kinetics where isotherm follows the pseudo-second-order model and Langmuir model, respectively. The maximum adsorption capacity for Congo red is 141.8 mg/g. Moreover, the membrane exhibits excellent catalytic reduction activity for 4-nitrophenol under mild conditions and over 96% of the pollutants are degraded within 90 s. The CZS nanofibrous membrane has promising prospects in applications in water treatment and environmental protection because of the good flexibility, easy fabrication, excellent adsorption, and catalytic activity.
In this study, two types of soluble thermoplastic resins were added to epoxy resin at a fixed weight ratio to prepare a three-phase cast body. The cast was then manufactured into hybrid nanofiber as interleaves for interlaminar toughening of carbon fiber/epoxy resin (CF/EP) composites using a co-solvent method. The results revealed that when the hybrid components reached 15 wt%, Polyethersulfone (PES) and polyaryletherketone cardo (PEK-C) exhibited the best synergistic toughening effect, and the fracture toughness increased by 99.8% and 39.8%, respectively, compared with the reference or the same proportion of the single PES toughened sample. We used PES/PEK-C hybrid nanofibers with an areal density of 19.2 g per square meter (gsm) as composite toughening layers. Apart from the lack of significant influence of PES nanofiber on CF/EP composites, the interlaminar fracture toughness of mode I and mode II layers increased by 88.3% and 46.9%, respectively, compared to the reference sample. Scanning Electron Microscopy of the fracture surface and cross-section micromorphology of the laminate displayed that the thermoplastic microspheres of different sizes contribute differently to crack resistance: PEK-C consumes more energy due to the debonding and extraction of microspheres and resin, whereas the presence of the PES phase can induce more plastic deformation and crack deflection.
Fiber-based microplastics (FMPs) are highly persistent and ubiquitously exist in the wastewater of textile industry and urban sewage. It remains challenging to completely remove such newly emerged organic pollutants by the predominant physical techniques. In this work, we investigated a photocatalytic degradation catalyzed by TiO2 catalyst to demonstrate the feasibility of implementing efficient chemical protocol to fast degrading polyethylene terephthalate (PET)-FMPs (a major FMP type existing in environment). The result shows that a hydrothermal pretreatment (180 °C/12 h) is necessary to induce the initial rough appearance and molecular weight reduction. With the comprehensive action of the nano-flower shaped N doped-TiO2 catalyst (Pt@N-TiO2-1.5%) on the relatively low molecular weight intermediates, an approximate 29% weight loss was induced on the pretreated PET-FMPs, which is about 8 times superior to the untreated sample. This work not only achieves a superior degradation effect of PET-FMPs, but also provides a new inspiration for the proposal of reduction strategies in the field of environmental remediation in the future.
Wearable human–machine interface (HMI) is an advanced technology that has a wide range of applications from robotics to augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR). In this study, an optically driven wearable human-interactive smart textile is proposed by integrating a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) patch embedded with optical micro/nanofibers (MNF) array with a piece of textiles. Enabled by the highly sensitive pressure dependent bending loss of MNF, the smart textile shows high sensitivity (65.5 kPa−1) and fast response (25 ms) for touch sensing. Benefiting from the warp and weft structure of the textile, the optical smart textile can feel slight finger slip along the MNF. Furthermore, machine learning is utilized to classify the touch manners, achieving a recognition accuracy as high as 98.1%. As a proof-of-concept, a remote-control robotic hand and a smart interactive doll are demonstrated based on the optical smart textile. This optical smart textile represents an ideal HMI for AR/VR and robotics applications.
Application of aerogel fibers in thermal insulating garments have sparked a substantial interest. However, achieving a high porosity and low thermal conductivity for aerogel fibers remain challenging, despite the innovative designs of porous structure. Herein, we fabricated lightweight and super-thermal insulating polyimide (PI) aerogel fibers via freeze-spinning by using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a pore regulator. The high affinity of PVA with water enables it to accelerate the ice crystal nucleation, adjust pore formation, and construct a controllable porous structure of PI aerogel fiber. The as-fabricated PI aerogel fiber has a considerable reduced pore size, high porosity (95.6%), improved flexibility and mechanical strength, and can be woven into fabrics. The PI aerogel fabric exhibits low thermal conductivity and excellent thermal insulation in a wide range of temperature (from − 196 to 300 °C). Furthermore, the PI aerogel fabrics can be easily functionalized to expand their applications, such as in intelligent temperature regulation and photothermal conversion. These results demonstrate that the aerogel fibers/fabric are promising materials for next-generation textile materials for personal thermal management.
Constructing “nanoglue” between inorganic electroactive species and conductive carbon scaffolds is an effective strategy to improve their compatibility and binding interaction, holding a great promise for fabricating high-performance hybrid electrodes for supercapacitors. However, multistep reactions are usually required to obtain these multicomponent systems, thus giving rise to the complicated and time-consuming issues. Herein, we for the first time, demonstrate a green one-pot method to anchor coaxial double-layer MnO2/Ni(OH)2 nanosheets on electrospun carbon nanofibers (CNFs) (denoted as MNC), where the intermediate MnO2 layer serves as the “nanoglue” to couple the vertically aligned Ni(OH)2 nanosheets and conductive CNFs. Benefiting from the unique chemical composition and hierarchical architecture, the resultant electrode delivers outstanding electrochemical performance, including an excellent specific capacitance (1133.3 F g−1 at 1 A g−1) and an ultrahigh rate capability (844.4 F g−1 at 20 A g−1). Moreover, the asymmetric supercapacitor assembled by using the MNC as positive electrode and the CNF as negative electrode can achieve an optimal energy density of 35.1 Wh kg−1 and a maximum power density of 8000 W kg−1. The one-pot strategy that stabilizes electroactive metal hydroxides on conductive carbons using a MnO2 “nanoglue” to design advanced hybrid electrodes is expected to be broadly applicable not only to the supercapacitor technology but also to other electrochemical applications.
Nanoparticle-based theranostics has served as a preferential technology for diagnosis and treatment of diseases. However, there are still massive challenges in constructing the ideal platform, which hopefully integrate various characteristics such as easy preparation, multiple utilization, and high therapeutic effect and safety into a single system. Herein, we reported a drug delivery system-based on natural silk fibroin (denoted as SF NPs), and systematically evaluated the physicochemical properties, biological properties and the biosafety assessment of SF NPs. The in vitro and in vivo experimental results confirmed that SF NPs showed high stability, low blood hemolysis and the universal delivery ability of drugs. Additionally, the SF NPs could rapidly enter into cells due to its nanoscale size, and had a weak cytotoxicity against MCF-7, 4T1 and L929 cells. Meanwhile, the SF NPs showed enhanced tumor permeability in a simulative model of multicellular spheroids, combined with excellent in vivo biosafety and the negligible organ injury, demonstrate that SF-based nanomedicine presents the utilization potentiality for drug delivery and may provide a new view for cancer treatment.
Spherical bimetallic cobalt-lanthanum oxides were loaded on the surface of electrospun carbon fiber by simple hydrothermal method and an electrochemical sensor was successfully constructed for simultaneous detection of amlodipine and acetaminophen. Carbon fiber, as an electron transport channel, is cooperated with bimetallic oxides to provide uniformly dispersed active sites and enhance the conductivity of the composite. The linear relationships between amlodipine and acetaminophen are 10-1000 µM and 5-1600 µM, and the detection limits are 0.86 µM and 0.25 µM, respectively. Furthermore, experiments reveal that the sensor exhibits good stability, and satisfactory recovery rate has been obtained in the detection of two practical drugs.
Composite fabrics with excellent microwave absorbing performance are highly desired. Herein, reduced graphene oxide/carbon nanofiber (rGO/CNF) based composite fabrics with spider web-like structure were successfully synthesized by electrostatic spinning technique. The spider web-like structure in the composite fabrics provides a connected network for efficient conductive loss of microwave energies. Magnetic loss benefits from the deposited nickel nanoparticles (Ni NPs) anchored in the carbon nanofibers. Meanwhile, the deposited thin polypyrrole (PPy) layers on the conductive network acts as a protective layer for Ni NPs as well as provides abundant interfaces for dissipating electromagnetic energies, which endow the composite fabrics stable microwave absorbing performance. Due to the synergistic effect of microwave absorbing mechanism, the maximum reflection loss (RLmax) of the composite fabric at 6.72 GHz is − 46.15 dB, and the effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) is as wide as 8.63 GHz (from 9.37 to 18 GHz). What's more, favorable mechanical and heat insulation properties of the composite fabrics reveal its multifunctional advantages. This rGO/CNF based composite fabric demonstrates a new direction for multifunctional and flexible microwave absorbing materials (MAMs).
Due to the lack of in-depth understanding about the folding issues of the electronic materials, it is a huge challenge to prepare a super-foldable and highly electrochemical faradic electrode. Here, inspired from from the fully nimble structures of cuit cocoons and cockscomb petals, with two-level biomimetic design, for the first time we prepared a super-foldable and electrochemically functional freestanding cathode, made of C-fiber@NiS-cockscomb (SFCNi). In virtue of its nimble biomimetic structures, SFCNi can remarkably sustain over 100,000 times, repeated true-folding without composite fibers fracture, functional matters detachment, conductivity degradation, or electrochemical performance change. The main mechanism behind these behaviors was disclosed by Real-time scanning electron microscopy and mechanical simulations, on the folding process. Results unveil that the cockscomb-like NiS with atomic thickness can deform freely due to the need of bending, and the cuit-cocoon-like SFCNi can generate an “ε-shape” folding structure at the crease. Such a smart self-adaptive deformation capability can effectively reduce the effect of stresses and local excessive deformations, so that the chemical bonds can preserve their interaction, and the material won’t fracture. This subtle and exceptional mechanical behavior realizes a super-foldable property. The two-level biomimetic design strategy is a novel method for fabrication of super-foldable composite electrodes and integrated multi-functional super-foldable devices.
Producing lightweight, mechanically strong, ductile, and biocompatible materials remains a significant challenge in material engineering due to the conflict between structural and mechanical features. Inspired by the “brick-and-mortar” structure of nacre, a construction with a naturally optimized structure-performance-function relationship, this study developed silk fibroin (SF) nacre as a silk protein-based nacre by integrating ice-templating and thermoplastic molding techniques. SF nacres are similar to natural nacre in microstructure, and their strength and toughness are even superior to natural nacres. These mechanical properties permit machining by extreme processing techniques, such as ion beam lithography. Furthermore, SF nacre can be used to modulate the polarization of laser beams and generate bright structural colors. Biocompatibility, mechanical robustness, good processability, and tunable coloration allow SF nacres to be used as a plastic replacement for structural engineering and biomedical use, showing promising advancement of such implantable devices towards clinical translation.
Tactile sensors with distinctive ability to imitate skins have attracted considerable attention from researches for applications in a variety of sensing fields. Here, inspired by the tentacles of jellyfish, biomimetic hydrogel microfibers were fabricated to be implanted with discrete structural color microsphere units for spatial tactile sensing. By employing a microfluidic spinning technology, the generated microfibers were with high microsphere encapsulation features and controllable morphologies because of the density match of microspheres and the pre-hydrogel solution. In addition, benefitting from the easy manipulation of the microfluidics, microfibers implanted with different structural color microspheres could also be realized. It was demonstrated that the resultant microfibers would show synchronous shifts of photonic bandgaps as well as structural color when a local force like pressure or tension was applied to the microsphere part. Based on the localization of finger bending experiments, the practical values of the bioinspired microfibers have also been proved as spatial tactile sensors. Thus, it is believed that the proposed bioinspired hydrogel microfibers are greatly significant in diverse sensing application fields.
Fibrosis is a common problem in soft tissue regeneration, often caused by the differentiation of fibroblasts into myofibroblasts. Because of the nanoscale topology that regulates the mechanical transduction of cells, nanofibers or nanoparticles are commonly used to modulate fibroblast differentiation. However, the strength of nanofibers is insufficient, and the physiological toxicity of nanoparticles still remains to be verified. In this study, self-induced crystallization was used to construct nano-protrusions on the random and aligned polycaprolactone microfibers to regulate the behavior of fibroblasts. The results revealed that the mechanical properties of microfibers with a nanoscale topology were improved. Immunofluorescence staining manifested that nano-protrusions impeded the activation of integrins and vinculins, thereby inhibiting the nuclear transfer of Yes-associated protein, resulting in a decrease in the expression of α- smooth muscle actin. Nanoscale topology of microfibers hampered the activation of the Rho/ROCK signalling pathway. In general, we used a simple process to construct a fibrous scaffold with a micro-nano multilevel structure. This structure can hinder the transformation of fibroblasts into myofibroblasts on both random and aligned fibers, which is expected to prevent fibrosis.
Here, authors report on composition of a stretchable, mechanically durable and superhydrophilic polyaniline (PANI)/halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) decorated PU nanofiber (PANI/HNTs@PU). The polymer nanofibers are placed as the core and PANI/HNTs makes the shell section. The PANI/HNTs creates a membrane with outstanding light absorption and photothermal conversion performance. The strong solar absorption capability and superhydrophilicity of the PANI/HNTs@PU remain almost unchanged during stretching, abrasion, and ultrasonic washing tests, exhibiting superior surface stability and durability. When the PANI/HNTs@PU is used for the interfacial evaporation, the evaporation rate and efficiency reach as high as 1.61 kg m− 2 h− 1 and 94.7%, respectively. No salt precipitation is observed on the solar absorber surface even under a high salinity or during the long term or cyclic evaporation test. Furthermore, the excellent interfacial evaporation function is maintained when the nanofiber composite is mechanically stretched. The PANI/HNTs@PU based evaporation device shows promising applications in high performance solar desalination.
In this paper, an aramid chopped fiber, so-called (ACF)/polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) composite, containing multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT), and in situ polymerized polypyrrole (PPy) was designed and fabricated, to be applied as a paper based electrode. The ACF/PPS/MWCNT-PPy electrode features highly porous paper-like structure with excellent electrochemical activity, rendering it a high areal capacitance of ~ 3205 mF cm−2 at a current density of 5 mA cm−2. After 5000 charge–discharge cycles, the areal capacitance still maintains 93% and 70% at high current densities of 20 and 80 mA cm−2, respectively. Moreover, the ACF/PPS/MWCNT-PPy electrode displays over 50% the areal capacitance and maintains it's mechanical stability after annealing at 300 °C. The UL-94 test reveals that the highest V-0 flame-retardant performance can be achieved. All these results suggest that the ACF/PPS/MWCNT-PPy composite is a promising material to be used as electrode for supercapacitor with high energy-storage capability and noninflammability.
Today the developed yarn muscles or actuators still cannot satisfy the requirements of working in high-temperature environments. Thermal resistivity is highly needed in aerospace and industrial protection applications. Herein, an artificial muscle with high-temperature tolerance is prepared using carbon nanotube (CNT) wrapped poly (p-phenylene benzobisoxazole) (PBO) composite yarns. A thermal twisting method was utilized to reorientate the stiff PBO molecular chains into a uniform and twist-stable coiled structure. The CNT/PBO composite yarn muscle generates reversible contractile strokes up to 18.9% under 5.4 MPa tension and outputs 1.3 kJ kg− 1 energy density. In contrast to previous actuators, which are normally operated at room temperatures, the CNT/PBO composite yarn muscles can work at ambient temperatures up to 300 °C with high contractile stroke and long-term stability. A bionic inchworm robot, a deployable structure, and smart textiles driven by the high-temperature-tolerant yarn muscles were demonstrated, showing the promise as a soft actuator towards high-temperature environment applications.
A high-temperature-tolerant coiled yarn muscle with high actuation performance at ambient temperatures up to 300 °C was prepared by thermal twisting carbon nanotubes wrapped poly (p-phenylene benzobisoxazole) fibers.
High-performance polymer-based aerogel fibers with ultrahigh porosity, mechanical robustness and outstanding thermal stability are demanded for applying in effective thermal insulation devices, especially in harsh environment. However, the poor mechanical properties and thermal stability of the commonly reported polymer-based aerogel fibers restricted their applications in many areas. As a special nano-build-block, aramid nanofiber-based aerogel fiber is expected to conquer this problem in virtue of the outstanding performance, intrinsically related to aramid fibers. Herein, a series of aramid nanofiber-based aerogel fibers were fabricated via a facial wet-spinning method combined with freeze–drying technique. The effects of coagulation bath temperature and the solid contents of the spinning precursors on their morphologies and mechanical properties were systematically studied. The obtained aerogel fibers possessed high porosity (> 92%), good mechanical properties (tensile strength ~ 8.1 MPa) and high specific surface area (~ 239 m2/g). Meanwhile, the woven textiles exhibited a low thermal conductivity (~ 34 mW/(m·K)) and outstanding thermal insulation properties under a wide range of temperature. In addition, surface modification by Teflon resin could make the ANAFs hydrophobic, thus exhibiting their applicational prospects in a humid environment. Overall, the aramid nanofiber-based aerogel fibers and their textile throw light in a favorable direction for developing high-performance thermal insulation fibers and textiles.
Aramid nanofiber-based aerogel fibers with high porosity (> 92%), good mechanical properties (tensile strength ~ 8.1 MPa) and high specific surface area (~ 239 m2/g) are fabricated by a novel and facial strategy including wet-spinning, solvent replacement and freeze–drying processes. Meanwhile, the weaved textiles exhibit a low thermal conductivity (~ 34 mW/(m·K)) and outstanding thermal insulation properties under a wide range of temperatures.
One-dimensional (1D) oxide nanofibers have attracted much attention in recent years but are still hampered by the difficulty in the expansion to 2D or 3D dimensions. Herein, ultrathin CeO2/SiO2 nanofibers with intriguing core–sheath structures were simply fabricated by a facile single-spinneret electrospinning method and were subsequently integrated as 2D nanofibrous mats and 3D sponges. Introducing secondary oxide (i.e., SiO2) could induce a unique fine structure and further inhibit the sintering of CeO2 nanocrystals, endowing the resultant dual-oxide nanofibers with high porosity, good flexibility, and enriched oxygen defects. Benefiting from the core–sheath structure and dual-oxide component, the CeO2/SiO2 nanofibers could stabilize 2.59 nm-Pt clusters against sintering at 600 °C. Once assembled into a 2D mat, the nanofibers could efficiently decrease the soot oxidation temperature by 63 °C. Moreover, the core–sheath CeO2/SiO2 nanofibers can be readily integrated with graphene nanosheets into a 3D sponge via a gas foaming protocol, showing 218.5 mg/g of adsorption capacity toward Rhodamine B molecules. This work shed lights on the versatile applications of oxide nanofibers toward clean energy ultilization and low-carbon development.
Ultrathin core–sheath CeO2/SiO2 nanofibers were fabricated by a facile single-spinneret electrospinning method and were subsequently integrated as 2D nanofibrous mats and 3D sponges, exhibiting desirable efficiency in heterogeneous catalysis and water remediation.