In situ carbon thermal reduction method for the production of electrospun metal/SiOC composite fibers

Various electrospun metal/SiOC (Ag/SiOC, Co/SiOC, and Cu/SiOC) composite fibers were synthesized via a carbon thermal reduction of four kinds of metal source (silver oxide nanoparticles, silver acetate, cobalt acetate, and copper trifluoro acetylacetonate). XRD results indicate that both common metal–organic metal precursors and seldom used metal oxide particles were successfully carbon thermally reduced to the corresponding metallic particles embedded in SiOC fibers, indicating that the range of metal source choices suitable for this method is quite broad. Further SEM and TEM analysis revealed that the shape and size of the formed metal particles were determined by the characteristics of the metal source in the electrospinning solution, which means these features of the metal particles can be adjusted by taking into account the solubility of the precursors in the chosen solvents. The prepared Ag/SiOC composite fibers possessed antibacterial activity for both Gram-negative E. coli bacteria and Gram-positive S. aureus bacteria and suitable permeability (~1 × 10⁻¹² m²), constituting a promising material for antibacterial filtration application.