Journal of Alloys and Compounds 461 (2008) 447–450 Structural properties and photoluminescence of TiO 2 nanofibers were fabricated by electrospinning Jianguo Zhao, Changwen Jia, Huigao Duan, Hui Li, Erqing Xie ∗ Key Laboratory for Magnetism and Magnetic Materials of the Ministry of Education Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China Received 9 March 2007; received in revised form 4 July 2007; accepted 5 July 2007 Available online 12 July 2007 Abstract Titania (TiO 2 )/PVP composite nanofibers were prepared with electrospinning method followed by calcining in air at different temperatures. The nanofibers were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectrum and photoluminescence (PL) spectrum. The results showed that the nanofibers are uniform and have an average diameter of ∼40 nm. It is also found that the photoluminescence properties were largely influenced by different crystalline structure. The nanofibers yield visible photoluminescence peaking at 550 nm for anatase phase and near infrared photoluminescence peaking at 820 nm for rutile phase. © 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V. Keywords: Oxide materials; Chemical synthesis; Crystal structure; Luminescence; Scanning electron microscopy 1. Introduction One-dimensional (1D) fine structured metal oxides exhibit novel physical and chemical properties that can be used in optics [1], data-storage devices [2] and nanoelectronic devices [3].A number of synthetic methods have been used to produce one- dimensional nanomaterials, such as hydrothermal method [4], anodic alumina membranes (AAMs) method [5], freeze-drying method [6], physical vapour deposition [7], chemical vapour deposition [8], thermal evaporation [9]. Among fine structured metal oxides, titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) is a wide band-gap semi- conductor with three crystalline phases: anatase, rutile, and brookite. Nanaostructured TiO 2 is widely used in non-linear optical devices [10], chemical sensors [11], dye-sensitized solar cells [12] and catalysis [13] because of its bio-compatibility, light weight, chemical and thermal stability. However, these methods have their disadvantages, all of them involve multiple steps and some of them introduce impurities. In this study, we introduce a simple and cost-effective method to produce TiO 2 nanofibers, namely electrospinning. Generally, it consists of three major parts: a high-voltage power sup- ply, a spinneret (a stainless needle) and a collector. The first patent that described the operation of electrospinning appeared ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 931 891 2703; fax: +86 931 891 3554. E-mail address: xieeq@lzu.edu.cn (E. Xie). in 1934 [14]. From then on, not only polymers, but several com- posite materials and ceramics can be readily synthesized by electrospinning were also reported extensively [15–20]. Elec- trospinning was widely used to produce nanofibers. It provides a straightforward method to produce nanofibers by using a high voltage between two electrodes (collector and spinneret). Using this method we can obtain nanofibers with diameters ranging from less than 10 nm to over several micrometers that depend on the applied-voltage and the distance between two electrodes, the viscosity of precursor, the conductivity of polymeric fluids. It had been reported that TiO 2 nanofibers were produced by some groups using electrospinning [17–20]. These groups have provided how to prepare and characterize nanofibers, but they did not explore the different structural properties and photo- luminescence with the increasing of calcined temperature. In this article, we produced TiO 2 nanofibers by electrospinning technique. The as-deposited nanofibers were calcined at dif- ferent temperatures. We found that the nanofibers had a low phase transition temperature and the photoluminescence of TiO 2 nanofibers vary with crystalline phase. Especially in the infrared luminescence, we may use it to produce infrared laser to detect cancer cell in the future [21,22]. 2. Experiment In a typical experiment, 0.5 g of tetra-n-butyl titanate (Ti(OC 4 H 9 ) 4 ) was mixed with 1 ml of ethanol and 1 ml of acetic acid as a catalyst in a measuring 0925-8388/$ – see front matter © 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V. doi:10.1016/j.jallcom.2007.07.018