Use of electrospinning to directly fabricate hollow nanofibers with functionalized inner and outer surfaces

A simple and versatile technique, electrospinning, which could be modified to fabricate long, hollow nanofibers with independently functionalized inner and outer surfaces was investigated. It has been demonstrated that a variety of materials such as polymers, ceramics, and carbon could be prepared as uniform fibers by electrospinning with well-controlled sizes, compositions, and morphologies. A tight control over the surfaces of hollow nanofibers greatly enhance their performance in applications related to nanofluidics, the fabrication of nanoscale lasing structures, and the prediction of advanced catalysts. The co-electrospinning process allows for the fabrication of nanofibers as assemblies with controllable, hierarchical structures, in addition to the control of surface chemistries. The results show that co-electrospinning with coaxial, dual-capillary spinneret is capable of generating hollow nanofibers with controllable hierarchical structures.