| AVS 66th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Fundamental Discoveries in Heterogeneous Catalysis Focus Topic | Friday Sessions |
| Session HC+SS-FrM |
| Session: | Catalysis at Complex Interfaces |
| Presenter: | Cristian Deenen, University of Twente, Netherlands |
| Authors: | C.S. Deenen, University of Twente, Netherlands C. Eyövge, University of Twente, Netherlands A. Susarrey-Arce, University of Twente, Netherlands H. Gardeniers, University of Twente, Netherlands |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Electrospinning is a technique to fabricate nanofibers by applying a high potential between a nozzle and a collector. As a solution is pumped through the nozzle, a jet is ejected from the nozzle that solidifies as it moves towards the collector, resulting in nanofiber deposition on the collector.
A drawback in conventional electrospinning setups consisting of a singular electrified nozzle is the difficulty in depositing multiple material combinations due to the time and labor required to either manually replace the nozzle or to flush the fluidic elements of the electrospinning setup. A novel multi-nozzle approach will be demonstrated to reduce the time required for the switching of precursor materials from minutes to seconds. The proposed concept opens up new possibilities for the fabrication of complex devices with a variety of material formulations, such as alternating functional layers of interest to the fields of catalysis, electrochemistry and photovoltaics.
Mounting multiple nozzles on a rotating disc allows the inactive nozzles to be rotated out-of-plane, away from the electric field between the active nozzle and the collector, which at the same time reduces the risks of dripping from the inactive nozzles. Combining this concept with appropriate control of electrical voltages and fluidic flow through the different nozzles, allows the engineering of a flexible platform for fast and reliable manufacturing of multi-component materials using electrospinning. In this work, we will demonstrate the instrumental concept and apply it to the fabrication of catalytic layers composed of TiO2, decorated with three different metal catalyst nanoparticles (Au, Pd, Pt) which function in concert for light harvesting and efficient hydrogen production during photoelectrocatalysis.