How Porous Nanofibers Have Enhanced the Engineering of Advanced Materials: A Review

Abstract

Nanofibers are one-dimensional nanomaterials<br />with a superfine diameter and many potential applications<br />due to their desirable characteristics such as small diameter,<br />high surface area, high flexibility, high porosity, and special<br />mechanical properties. In the recent years, porous nanofibers<br />have been the subject of considerable research works in a<br />wide range of applications owing to high surface area to<br />volume ratios and high porosity ratio. Combination of<br />superfine diameter and porosity in porous nanofibers<br />represent an emergent class of nanoporous materials with<br />maximum conceivable specific surface area, high pores<br />volume and extreme adsorption capacity that could lead to<br />improvement in many applications such as tissue engineering,<br />catalysts, sensors, batteries, energy storage,<br />adsorption/separation, filtration, medical applications, solar<br />cells, superhydrophobic surfaces, supercapacitors, and<br />conductors. The present review focuses on the current<br />progresses in the fabrication mechanisms and<br />characterization methods of porous nanofibers. In addition,<br />some application capabilities of porous nanofibers that were<br />reported in literature are discussed and an outline of future<br />trends is presented.