Surface porous microstructured fibers with customized functionalities for 1D functional materials

Abstract

Fibers have been widely used for wearable textiles and fiber-reinforced composites owing to their unique structures and performances. However, design and fabrication of 1D advanced fiber materials with diversified surface microstructures and desired functionalities is still a considerable challenge. In this study, we present a novel one-dimensional confined breath figure (1D-cBF) approach for efficient preparation of a brand-new kind of 1D continuous fibers surface-engineered with conformal honeycomb porous microstructures (F@HPMs) and a novel kind of Hybrid F@HPMs (HF@HPMs) with functional nanomaterials incorporated in porous microstructures. The obtained F@HPMs demonstrated controllable surface microstructural morphologies by adjusting the experimental variables, and the main influential factors including solvents, concentrations, polymer bricks, and substrates in the 1D-cBF process were systematically studied. Moreover, various functional nanocomponents could be incorporated for developing HF@HPMs for customized functionalities. As a demonstration, TiO2/HF@HPMs that incorporate with TiO2 nanoparticles were fabricated for enhanced photodegradation of organic pollutants.