Coral-like Au/TiO 2 hollow nanofibers with through-holes as high efficient catalyst through mass transfer enhancement.

One-dimensional hollow nanomaterials were widely used in catalysis field. However, the inner surfaces of one-dimensional hollow nanostructures could not be effectively utilized in liquid reaction due to diffusional limitation caused by the large ratio of length to diameter. In this work, a template assisted coaxial electrospinning method was developed to prepare TiO2 hollow nanofibers with through-holes which was further employed as carrier for Au nanoparticles. The Au/TiO2 hollow nanofibers with through-holes showed significantly catalytic activity enhancement to the reduction of 4-nitrophenol in aqueous solution compared with solid and hollow nanofibers counterparts. The through-holes which provided unrestricted macropores for mass transfer in liquid solution were studied to be accounted for the catalytic activity enhancement. We believe that this through-hole hollow nanostructures can be used widely in other fields.