Preparation and characterization of hollow Fe2O3 ultra-fine fibers by centrifugal spinning

In this paper, the hollow Fe2O3 ultra-fine fibers were successfully prepared by the centrifugal spinning followed by the calcination process. Several spinning parameters including the concentration of FeCl3, rotational speed and diameter of spinneret were discussed for determination of optimum spinning condition. The resultant as-spun fibers and hollow Fe2O3 ultra-fine fibers were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), FT-IR spectra and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results showed that the diameters of the as-spun fibers and the hollow Fe2O3 ultra-fine fibers were 1.0–6.0μm and 0.5–5.0μm, respectively. The concentration of FeCl3 had an impact on as-spun fibers hardly, but on diameters of the hollow Fe2O3 ultra-fine fibers. The diameters of the as-spun fibers become smaller and the hollow Fe2O3 ultra-fine fibers become more fragile when the rotational speed increased or the inner diameter of the spinneret decreased. [Display omitted] •Fe2O3 ultra-fine fibers with hollow structure were successfully prepared by centrifugal spinning method.•The optimum process conditions for fabricating hollow Fe2O3 ultra-fine fibers by centrifugal spinning were obtained.•The diameters of the hollow Fe2O3 ultra-fine fibers can be controlled in the range of 0.5 to 5.0μm.